96 



due to combined sea and river action before the last elevation of the 

 land took place. It seems to us, however, to be higher than any 

 level the waters could then have reached. It appears to have ex- 

 tended, at some former period, entirely across the opening of the 

 valley, backing against the hill side on the south, as it now does in 

 the opposite direction, and forming the barrier which confined a lake, 

 occupying at that period the lower portion of the glen. The burst- 

 ing of such barriers, and their subsequent modification by floods in 

 the river, are common phenomena in mountainous districts. Traces 

 of a lateral moraine are seen on both sides ; and farther up the glen, 

 where it turns northwards, two other mounds, rising high above the 

 stream, are in the position where a terminal moraine would be thrown 

 down, after the ice had retreated from the lower part of the valley. 



The discovery of an ancho^ inJGlenN^osa, similar to those now 

 used by the herring smacks which visit Brodick bay, has often been 

 referred to as proving that, since the island was inhabited by a 

 people far advanced in civilization, the sea filled the valley, and 

 afforded a " trustworthy station for ships." That an anchor was 

 really found, brought to the smithy at Invercloy, and worked up 

 into various articles, we think there cannot be a doubt, from the 

 accounts given by several persons still living, who saw it and handled 

 it. All agree, however, in fixing the locality in which it was found 

 at a place where peat is cut, at a considerable height on the 

 southern hill side, and therefore far above the level at which the 

 waters of the sea stood before that last elevation of the land to 

 which we have so often alluded already. If the discovery, then, be 

 admitted as a fact by the archaeologist, it is entirely without that 

 geological significancy which attaches to the Clyde canoes. With 

 the archaeologist the explanation may be left. 



64. The contact of the lower old conglomerate with the clav slate 

 is not seen in Glen Rosa. The latter rock first appears in the bed 

 of the stream, at the sharp turn where it begins to flow eastwards ; 

 but the junction must be farther down the burn. The slate rises 

 high into the hills on both sides, forming on the north the principal 

 mass of Glenshant rock, called also the Pillar, from a large isolated 

 sheet or prism, standing out detached from the front of the bold cliff. 

 The precipice is about 1,000 feet above the river, and forms one of 

 the finest features of this noble glen. 



We now approach the base of the series, where the central granite 

 rises from beneath the enveloping slate rocks ; and here a celebrated 

 junction occurs in the bed of the stream. The hill sides show the 

 contrast of the two rocks from a great distance, in the bare stony 



