NOTICE OF AN ANCIENT SEA BEACH. 153 



thickness, mixed with shells, bones, &:c., and firmly cemented by 

 calcareous tuffa. It occurs at the base of a lofty and precipitous bank, 

 the lower half of which is moist, and covered with a thick coarse turf, 

 on the removal of which, by the unusual violence and height of the 

 waves on the day alluded to, the appearance which I am now about to 

 describe was opened to view. All that has been laid bare of this 

 curious bed or deposit is about fifty feet in extent ; and it occurs at a 

 distance of about the same number of feet from the present high water 

 mark, the base of it being about twelve feet above the highest present 

 level of the sea. It is composed of the same general fragments of 

 rocks which form the present sea-beach ; and the imbedded shells are 

 the same as those which are still most abundant on that part of the 

 coast. On examining this bed, the conclusion seems at once to force 

 itself on the observer, that it has at one period, and that for a con- 

 siderable length of time, been subject to the influence and action of 

 the waves : in other words, that it is neither more nor less than an 

 ancient sea-beach ; and having arrived at this conclusion, the interest- 

 ing question which next suggests itself is. Has the sea receded, or has 

 the land risen, so as to accoxmt for the elevation of this gravelly bed 

 above the present level of the ocean ? a question which, in the present 

 state of geological science, and especially when other ascertained facts 

 regarding the same coasts (the Firth of Forth at least) are taken into 

 consideration, it will not, perhaps, be diificult to answer. From these 

 facts, the plain and natural reply seems to be, that the land has risen 

 on this part of the coast, though how long it may be since this change 

 took place between the relative level of sea and land, it is not so easy 

 to determine. From several circumstances, however, it would appear 

 to have been recent, «'. e. after the district was inhabited by the sam.e 

 animals, terrestrial as well as marine, which now exist in it. The shells, 

 as ah-eady mentioned, included in the cemented gravel, are all of 

 presently existing species ; and the bones which were found in it 

 appear to be equally recent. Several of these bones I picked up in 

 company with D. Milne, Esq., who, on shewing them to well known 

 anatomists in Edinburgh, ascertained that they belonged to the 

 common cow or ox, but a variety greatly smaller than that which is 

 now to be seen in the Lowlands of Scotland. Some of these bones, I 

 may farther mention, appear to have belonged to a species of the 

 genus Cervus. On a siibsequent occasion, I found various and well 

 defined teeth ; fi'om all which facts, the discovery of this ancient sea- 

 beach may be regarded as one of no small interest, being one of the 

 few facts yet recorded or observed, which would tend to prove that 

 the present race of land animals existed before the change of levels 

 took place. To establish the correctness of this inference, one thing 

 seemed to be especially desirable, viz. to ascertain whether these bones 

 were actually imbedded in the gravelly mass, or merely adhering to 

 the surface of it, as, in the latter case, very little information regarding 



