1819.] Memoirs of the Wernerian Society, Vol. II. Part IT. 135 
the sparus lineatus, of which a figure and accurate description is 
given: with a description of a new species of gurnard, which he 
distinguishes by the name of trigla levis. The paper terminates 
with remarks on the trigla cuculus:and the trigla lineata. 
IX. Observations upon the Alveus, or general Bed of the 
German Ocean and British Channel. By Robert Stevenson, 
Esq. Civil Engineer.—This paper contains a very particular and 
curious detail of the wasting effects of the sea upon the coasts 
of Scotland, which the author, from his official situation, as 
inspector of the northern light-houses, has had the annual means 
of ascertaining for these several years past. He states, and 
indeed the fact is notorious, that the sea has within these few 
years past washed away a good deal of land from the south 
shore of the Frith of Forth, and from various other parts of the 
coast both of Scotland and England which he enumerates. This 
wearing away of the coast he ascribes to the gradual filling up 
of the channel of the German Ocean. The consequence of the 
continual deposition of matter washed from the dry land by the 
-action of the rivers must, he conceives, have a tendency to fill 
up the bottom of that ocean, and of course to raise its level. 
Mr. Stevenson is disposed to generalize this, and to consider it 
‘as general all over the globe; so that, in his opinion, the level of 
the ocean over the whole of our globe is every where rising. 
This rise of the level of the ocean, in consequence of the 
deposition of the detritus of the dry land into its bed, was the 
foundation of Dr. Hutton’s theory of the earth. The accuracy 
of the conclusion was disputed with much zeal by Deluc and 
Kirwan, and defended with great.eloguence by Prof. Playfair. 
Without entering into so intricate a controversy, itmay be suffi- 
cient to observe that Mr. Stevenson’s arguments prove too 
much. Ifthe devastations upon the coasts of Great Brita are 
owing to the filling up of the channel of the German Ocean and 
the consequent rise of the surface of that ocean, this filling up 
of the bed of that ocean must be going on with prodigious rapi- 
dity. I myself remember perfectly since the road between New- 
haven and Leith went much within the present high water mark, 
and since there was a space of ground between it and the sea. 
{ remember, and many of the inhabitants of Edinburgh and 
‘Leith must likewise remember, the violent storm by which this 
piece of land was swept away ; and from the nature of the soil 
in that part of the coast, when the wasting process has once 
begun, it is likely to go on for a considerable space. But that 
there is not the least alteration in the height of the surface of 
the Frith of Forth is quite obvious from the marks upon Leith 
pier; for the tide rises no higher on that pier at present than it 
did 20 years ago. Probably indeed no perceptible change has 
‘taken place in that height for centuries; for some of the harbours 
on the north coast of the Frith seem to have remained unaltered 
for several hundred years. I have no doubt that the sea is shal- 
