135 



80, 1 00, aud 300 feet above the sea level. Shells were discovered in 

 cutting the canal between Glasgow and Paisley, at a distance of about 

 four miles from Glasgow. Twenty-two species were obtained, and a 

 notice of them by Captain Laskey appears in an early volume of the 

 Werneriau Transactions. A series of shells are in the Andersonian 

 Museum of Glasgow, procured from Dalmuir, on the Clyde, aud a notice 

 of their discovery, by Mr. Thomas Thomson, was inserted in the first 

 volume of Thomson's " General Records of Science." Similar deposits 

 are also described as occurring on the shores of Loch Lomond, and 

 more recently at Airdrie. These latter discoveries have been recorded 

 in the Journals of the Geological Society, by Mr. Smith, of Jordan 

 Hill, to whom we are indebted for several papers on this subject. 



I shall now leave strict geology for a little autiquarianism, and supply 

 you with some proofs of the former existence of the sea, or at least of a 

 branch of it, at the spot now occupied by Glasgow, in notices of the 

 discovery of several canoes, embedded in sand at various places on the 

 Clyde. 



Up to November 1850, eight of these had been discovered. They 

 have been kindly described for me by Mr. Buchanan, of the Western 

 Banlc . — 



" The first was dug out of the foundations of the original church of 

 St. Enoch, in 1780. It was lying fiat, and filled with sand aud shells. 

 In the bottom there was sticking a celt or hatchet used by the aborigi- 

 nal inhabitants. The boat was seen by the late John Wilsone, Esq., 

 who secured possession of the celt ; and it is now the property of his 

 relative, Charles Wilsone Broun, Esq. It is in good preservation. 



"The second was found about 1781, when digging the foundation 

 of the Tontine. It is alluded to in Chapman's 'Picture of Glasgow,' 

 3rd ed., p. 152. It was embedded in sand and gravel. 



" The third was found in 1825, when opening London-street. The 

 position of this boat was vertical ; the prow being uppermost, as if it 

 had sank stern foremost. It was also filled \vith sand and shells. Pieces 

 of it were broken off by the curious, but no effort was made to disinter 

 the boat and it was covered up again. 



" A fourth boat was found in Stockwell, a little above Jackson-street, 

 while cutting the common sewer along the former, in 1825. Not much 

 is knoAvn about this boat, but it is alluded to in the ' Gentlemen's 

 Magazine' for 1825, vol. 95, part 2, p. 107. 



" The other four were all found within a few yards of each other, in 

 1847-8, at Spiiugficld, on the south side of Clyde, nearly opposite Mr. 



