HEPORTS ON KXCURSIONS. 295 



of New Red Sandstone or Triassic Age. When the volcano was 

 in active life the appearance of the country was totally different 

 from what it is now. After it ceased a long period followed, 

 during which the wasting forces of Nature carried off seaward 

 many hundreds of feet of solid rock, and gradually cai-ved out 

 the surface of the ground to something resembling its present 

 condition. The boulder clay which covers most of the lower 

 parts of the country, and which was seen at several places, is 

 the result of ice action upon this long-continued aerial waste 

 and upon the underlying solid rock. Before, and probably 

 during, the intensely cold glacial period, the country stood very 

 much higher than it does just now, as is shown by the deep 

 river valleys of the Kelvin, the Forth, the Almond, &c. But 

 before it passed away the land had sunk to about 100 feet 

 lower than it is at present. The sea flowed up the Clyde valley 

 as far as about Bothwell, up the Kelvin to about Kirkintilloch, 

 and up the Irvine to above Hurlford, a distance of eight or nine 

 miles from the present shore; indeed, it is quite likely that 

 Irvine Bay, if we may so speak, continued up the Garnock 

 valley, and by the narow straits of Lochwinnoch joined the bay 

 of Paisley or Renfrew, and the waters of the Clyde reached the 

 sea by Lochwinnoch, or perhaps the ice from Loch Lomond closed 

 the Firth. During this time were laid down the extensive 

 deposits of clay that now form what in the East are called the 

 carse-lands, and the corresponding level tracts along the Clyde. 

 The laud began to rise till it came to within fifty feet of its 

 present level, when it paused for some time and formed another 

 beach, which has, however, been very largely wasted away. To 

 this period belong the shells which were dug out of the laminated 

 clay on the side of the river. Sundry misguided whales sport- 

 ing in the prehistoric sea became stranded on the shore, and 

 their bones and skulls were in these later days exhumed from 

 under about thirty or forty feet of clay and drifted sand, nearly 

 four miles from the sea as the river flows, but less than one in 

 a straight line. The upward movement of the land continued 

 for about other twenty-five feet, when a long pause took place, 

 sufficient to allow the waves to carve out a terrace of varying 

 width all round the Firth. Where the rocks are very hard, as 

 on the Cowal coast, this shelf is only a few yards in width, but 



