60 REPORT—1868. 
landicum and angustatum, Tellina pretenuis, Saxicava norvegica, Fusus altus, anti- 
quus (dextral form), and norvegicus, Trophon scalariforme, Buccinum cyaneum, 
Purpura lapillus, Mangelia rufa, Admete viridula, Ringicula ventricosa, Littorina 
littorea, Trochus tumidus, Scalaria greenlandica, Natica clausa, and (var.) occlusa, 
helicoides, and catena, Acteon tornatilis, and Conovulus pyramidalis, &c. 
In the newer horizon at Butley, the vicinity of land is apparent, this marine bed 
having yielded to the author Pupa marginata (2), Planorbis complanatus (2), 
Limneus pereger (1), truncatulus (1), and an unfigured? form. 
The quiescent nature of the Red Crag seas may be judged from the exquisite 
state in which every species (not specimen) may be obtained, and the number of 
perfect bivalves to be obtained zm situ, as Terebratula, Mytilus, Cardium angusta- 
tum, and edule, Astarte, Gastrana, Solen, Mactra, and Pholas. 
A list of all the species of Red Crag shells known was appended to the paper. 
Recent Geological Changes on the British Islands. 
By the Rev. James Bropre (Monimail, Fifeshire). 
In this paper the author arranged his observations and conclusions under the 
following propositions :— 
1. There has been no elevation of the coasts of Britain in consequence of subter- 
ranean agency since the time of the Roman occupation.—St. Michael’s Mount in 
Cornwall is now, as it was in the time of the Greek historian, an island at high 
water, and a peninsula at the ebb. The remains. of Roman buildings, roads, 
embankments, and fortifications which have been discovered in Kent, in Norfolk, 
in Lincolnshire, in the valley of the Forth in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, 
and of Stirling, and on the other side of the island in the valley of the Clyde in 
Lanarkshire, show that the level of the sea and land, at the time when they were 
formed, was the same as it is at present. On the north-east coast of Scotland, 
rude sculptures on rocks, kitchen middens, and other traces of the prebkistoric 
races who were contemporary with the Romans, are found in such situations as 
show that there has been no alteration of the coast-level since they were formed. 
We therefore conclude that there has been no elevation of the coast of Britain, 
either sudden or gradual, since the Roman occupation. 
2. The last elevation of the Scottish coast was sudden—In the valley of the 
Forth, near Stirling, several skeletons of whales have been found imbedded in a 
bed of clayey loam, which is from 15 to 20 feet in thickness. The bones are so 
entire, and lie in such regular position, as clearly to prove that they must have 
been enveloped in the clay that surrounds them, while the ligaments that bound 
them together were still entire. They cannot have been exposed for any length 
of time to the action either of the water or of the air. If the elevation of the 
coast had been slow and gradual, as soon as the bed of loam came to be exposed to 
the action of the wind and wave, it would have been washed away, and the skeletons 
thus left unprotected, the bones would have been weather-beaten, broken, and 
scattered. A similar argument may be employed in regard to some shell-beds 
which have been found in the same neighbourhood. These beds lie sometimes in 
loam, sometimes in sand. They are from 5 to 15 feet above high-water mark. 
The shells are numerous, and remain in the same position they occupied when the 
animals they contained were alive. In the valley of the Clyde, near Glasgow, 
similar beds of shells are found. In that quarter also a number of ancient vessels 
have been found imbedded in loam. Some of them were 20 feet above high- 
water mark. These vessels evidently owe their preservation, like the Stirling 
skeletons, to the clay that surrounded them, and we conclude that, like them, 
they must have been suddenly elevated. 
3. The extent of this elevation was between 30 and 40 feet.—The surface of the 
bed of clay in which the skeletons are imbedded, in its higher parts, is 28 feet 
above ordinary high-water mark. As that surface must have formed the bottom 
of the estuary before the elevation took place, we cannot estimate its amount at 
less than 30 or 40 feet. 
4. This elevation took place some two thousand years ago.—Among the vessels 
— 
