on the Coast of Tiree, Sec. 135 



matter which is removed from our immediate observation by 

 the mist of years. 



In the submarine moss of Tiree, the ripe seeds of a leguminous 

 plant are abundantly interspersed : in that at Skaill, there are ripe 

 seeds resembling those of the turnip, but of a reddish colour; and 

 in that atFlisk, the shells of nuts containing no kernels. In these 

 three stations, the appearances presented, direct us to the same 

 season of the year, viz. that in which the seeds of plants are 

 ripe, as the time in which all suffered a change of position in 

 regard to the sea. This would lead us to infer, that the same 

 cause had induced not only the same changes in these three 

 stations, but had induced them also at the same time, operating 

 upon the whole extent of coast from Tiree to Flisk. 



There are no facts stated by wliich we can trace a connection 

 of time between the appearances in these three places, and those 

 in Cornwall, Pembrokeshire, Cardiganshire, and Oban ; yet it is 

 not improbable, that, if the moss in these latter stations were 

 carefully examined, sufficient evidence might be obtained of a 

 simultaneous change of position ; and such a strong relationship 

 established between the whole, that the identity of their remov- 

 ing cause could not be doubted. Even in the absence of all 

 time-marking circumstance, it is not unreasonable to suppose, 

 nor even to conclude, that a cause operating so extensively as 

 from Tiree to Skaill, must have affected the whole of Great 

 Britain, and changed the whole of its maritime outline. 



Independent of the evidence given by submarine forests, that 

 the island is not now on the same level in regard to the sea as it 

 once was, there is another circumstance which renders this more 

 than probable, and which, taken in connection with the frequent 

 occurrence of submarine forests, amounts to a proof that a change 

 has, at some era, taken place along a great portion of the Bri- 

 tish coast, but especially on the west and north-west, where 

 large trees are found lying in situations in which no trees can 

 now be made to grow, on account of the close proximity of the 

 sea. I would speak with deference, but I should conceive that 

 this fact cannot be accounted for otherwise, than by supposing 

 that the sea was at one time more distant from the stations in 

 which they grew and are found, than it now is. 



For though it has been supposed that large forests would pro- 



