Notes on some Rctised Beaches of the West of Scotland. 233 



others it attains to a considerable breadth, and it is backed 

 by picturesque cavern-hollowed clilis. These may be seen 

 very distinctly in the neiL-hbourhood of Werayss Bay. On 

 the north bank of the CI y vie, between Helensburgh and Dum- 

 barton, the same sort of beach may be traced, and here, too, 

 where the soft strata of the Old Eed Sandstone stand out in 

 cliffs on the upper side of the Dad, they are hollowed out in 

 water-worn caves. 



As we approach Glasgow the high grounds on both sides 

 of the river recede far inland, leaving spread out between 

 them a rich alluvial plain, which it needs little imagination to 

 recognise as the ancient bottom of some old sea or inlet, and 

 it is curious to meet with names and notices carrying out 

 this hypothesis. Thus, a little way from the town of Eenfrew, 

 but on the opposite or north side of the Clyde, and a mile 

 and a half from the river, is a place called Garscadden. In 

 Gaelic, I am informed, gctr means a point, and scadclen 

 a herring ; and Macfarlane, in his "History of Eenfrew," men- 

 tions this place as " The Herring Yair." In the " Statistical 

 Account" I find also some notes mentioning certain ancient 

 fishings at Eenfrew Quay. In various parts of the flat 

 grounds lying around the town of Eenfrew, deposits have been 

 found containing shells of species not now living in this 

 estuary. The confirmation of the country is also corroborative 

 of these traditions of the sea having formerly stood at a higher 

 level than now. 



In and around Glasgow^ itself these ancient sea-levels are 

 distinctly traceable. In Glasgow Green may be noticed two 

 haughs or meadows, one about eleven and the other twenty- 

 six feet above the level of the sea. The appearance of that 

 part of Glasgow has been much altered of late years. In 

 1810 a slight swell in the river, or a heavy shower, laid part 

 of this park, called the Low Green, under water. 



But keeping in view the improvements which have 

 been made upon the Green, it is yet sufficiently obvious 

 that the shelf along the river below the High Green and 

 the Fleshers' Haugh may have been a beach, and the flat 

 expanse of King's Park and the High Green sloping up to 

 Monteith Eow another. The second of these levels gives us 



