rREHlSTOKIC NAVAL ARCHITECTURE. 547 



seeing that the line mud <»t' the et^tuar^- is deposited very slowly, aud 

 tliat it mast therefore have taken a long i)eriod to form so great a thick- 

 ness as 20 feet. Again, the tides and currents of the estuary, by chang- 

 ing their direction, might sweep away a considerable mass of alluvium 

 from the bottom, laying bare a canoe that may have foundered many 

 centuries before. After the lapse of so long an interval another vessel 

 might go to the bottom in the same locality, and be theie covered up 

 with the older one on the same general plane. Tliese two vessels, 

 found in such a position, would naturally be classed together as of the 

 same age, and yet it is demonstrable that a very long i)eriod may have 

 elapsed between the date of the one and that of the other. Such an 

 association of these canoes, therefore, can not be regarded as jiroving 

 synchronous deposition; nor, on the other hand, can we aftirm any 

 dilference of age from mere relative position, unless we see one canoe 

 actually buried beneath another.'' 



The positions of these canoes in tlu' ancient estuaryof tlie Clyde, then, 

 would seem to indicate that a rise of the land in Scotlaud of at least 

 25 feet above the present level of the sea must have taken place, and 

 while it is generally conceded that this elevation has occurred .since 

 the peopling of the island, a much more remote period is assigned to 

 the event than is warranted from the indications of a considerable 

 change of level even in C(mii)aratively recent times. 



Thus a recess in the face of the alluvium of Carron Eiver, below Lar- 

 bert Bridge, in Stirlingshire, is spoken of by tradition as an ancient 

 harbor, aud the remains of a boat and a broken anchor have been found 

 imbedded in the spot.' 



According to Nimmo-, the Carse of Stirling was cultivated and 

 measured in the twelfth century, and it is quoted from Trevelius' 

 Chronicle that during the invasion of Scotland by Edward I, the Eng- 

 lish cavalry could not make their way through these "Loca Palustria" 

 in the winter season. 



An indirect support is given by Kobert Chambers, from whose writing^ 

 I (piote: 



"The few remnants of a higher i)lateau througliout the Carse of 

 Gowrie almost all bear names in wliich the Celtic word for island (mch) 

 forms a ]iart; as if a primitive peo])le had originally recognized these 

 as islands in the midst of a sliallow lirth. Perhaps there is little con- 

 sequence to be attached to this fact since the extreme wetness which, 

 even in recent times pertained to the lowlands of the Carse, may have 

 appeared a sutHcient reason for so distinguishing any .snatch of more 

 elevated and tinner ground. The minister of Errol reports, unfortu- 

 nately not in a direct way, the tinding of the remains of a small anchor, 

 about fifty years ago, on a piece of low ground on the estate of Mag- 



' Chamhcrs, !>., Ancient Sea Margins, p. 158. 

 -Nimmo's History of Stirlingshire, 2fl ed., p. 74. 

 ^Chambers, U., Ancient Sea Margins, p. 18. 



