160 Mil. Ferguson on a Marine Deposit containing Shells. 



seated upon the 64-70 feet level. la the central part of the city we 

 pass at once from the 2C feet alluvium (for example at George-Square) 

 up a steep slope, to an irregular height not less than 100 feet, remarkable 

 for a capping of diluvium, containing a number of far transported boulders. 

 But in the line of the High-Street, the University Buildings clearly sit 

 upon the same terrace which we find at Dowanhill and the Hill-Street 

 Factory. On the right bank of the Molendiuar Burn, opposite to the 

 Craig Park, there is a fine piece of terrace about 150 yards in length, 

 and perhaps 50 feet above the tiny stream. This is approximately 144 

 feet above the level of the sea." 



There is collateral proof of the correctness of the theory of ancient 

 beaches in the records of the discovery of several canoes, imbedded in 

 sand, at various places on our river. For instance, in 1847, one was dis- 

 covered at Springfield. It was found about 100 feet from the margin of 

 the Clyde, and rested on a bed of gravel fifteen inches thick, covering a 

 bed of finely laminated sand. Over it was a bed of loam nine or ten feet 

 thick, surmounted by sand ; the entire depth of the situation of the canoe 

 below the surface was seventeen feet, being just about the level of low 

 water in the river. Three others were afterwards found here. 



Previous to this, in July, 1825, a canoe was also discovered in digging 

 a sewer in London-Street. An account of it in the Gentleman's Magazine 

 states that the boat lay " in a bed of blue clay, which was covered and 

 surrounded by fine sand, like that found on the shores of a navigable 

 river or wide frith." The author of "Glasgow Delineated" says that 

 inside were sand and shells ; and Mr. James Peters, the same man who 

 preserved the Trochus of the Sauchiehall-Street beach, informs me that 

 he saw the canoe dug up, and that it was covered with mussels and wilks 

 which were adhering to the wood, and which he took ofi^ with his own 

 hands. 



There is some vague account of another of these boats having been 

 discovered in cutting a sewer in Stockwell-Street, but nothing definite 

 seems to be known about it. 



It is stated in Chapman's Picture of Glasgow, published in 1818, p. 

 152, that a boat was discovered in digging the foundation for the Tontine 

 buildings. He describes it as imbedded in sand and gravel, several feet 

 below the surface ; and one was dug out of the foundations of the original 

 church of St. Enoch's in 1780. It was lying flat, and filled with sand 

 and shells. In the bottom there was sticking a celt or hatchet used by 

 the aboriginal inhabitants. The boat was seen by the late John Wilson, 

 Esq., who secured the possession of it, and it is now the property of 

 Charles "Wilson Brown, Esq. It is in good preservation. 



As to the extreme duration of the period during which these terraces 

 were formed, Mr. Smith of Jordanhill has made the following remarks: — 



" At an elevation of about forty feet, there has been observed upon 

 many parts of our coasts a series of raised beaches and terraces, which, 

 by their magnitude, indicate the prodigious length of time at which the 



I 



