4 



Revieiv of Chambers s Ancient Sea Margins, 



to the centre of the earth, and forcibly suggests that water was con- 

 cerned in giving it such a configuration. Such a plain is, indeed, 

 precisely what would be presented to us as a piece of new land, if 

 some of our shallow seas, such as the Bristol Channel, the mouth of 

 the Humber, or the Solway Firth, were to sink forty feet below their 

 present level. The carses in Scotland are also generally level, though 



not without partial inequalities, which a slight examination suffices to 

 detect. In the configuration of the ground, thus level, with in many 

 places the small inclination proper to a beach over which the tide rises 

 and falls; in the cliffs which are often seen rising along the interior 

 limit of the plain ; in the constitution of the soil, composed of layers 

 of sand or of clay, or of both, alternating often with beds of shells, we 

 see clear evidence that these grounds were formed along the margins 

 of an ancient sea ; the highest inland part speaking of one about 44 

 feet above the present. Such is the announcement from these great 

 expanses. When we look, however, to narrower examples of the great 

 belting, such as are presented on bolder coasts, we find precise demon- 

 strations, not only of an ancient sea-level about 44 feet above the pres- 

 ent, but of several others intermediate between that and th^ present, 

 particularly at 32, 27, 20, 11, and 8 feet — such appearing in the well- 

 defined form of terraces or benches of land, the unavoidable result of 

 the wearing power of the sea when it abuts against land of suitable 

 slope and consistence. And, as already almost implied, these memo- 

 rials of ancient sea-levels conform with each other in various parts of 

 the island." — pp. 6-9. 



The volume is occupied with details of facts from Scotland 

 and other parts of Great Britain, and afterwards from Europe 

 and foreign countries generally. 



A brief abstract is here presented in a tabular form, first of ter- 

 races occurring in the vicinity of the sea, and next of those ex- 



isting in the interior. We have preferred this arrangement, which 



differs from Chambers's own table, for reasons mentioned beyond. 



1. Terraces in the vicinity of the Sea. {Height in feet above high tide.) 



Frith of Tay, near 

 Dundee, i 

 Newburg, 

 Bambriech, 

 Bal merino, 

 Erro!, 



Between Frith of 

 Tay, and Frith 

 of Forth, 

 Leuchars, 



|20-26 



• • 



20 

 20 



• 9 



• • 



10 

 '21- 



• * 



• • 



• • 



• • 



• • 



• * 



56 



56 



56 



56 

 56 



60-70 



70 

 64-70 



* • 



107 

 117 



6-117 









208-13,389 





St. Andrews, 



Pipeland farm- 

 stead, 

 Mora v, or Murrav 



Frith, 



Fochabers, 

 Inverness, 



126 



126 

 126 



165 

 141, 165 



192 



• • 



203 



• • 



• • # • 



• • • • 



325,465,545 



280 





Frith of Forth, 

 Leven & Dun- 

 barnie, 



Portobello 













__*___ . . 











