T. F. Jamieson — Raised Beaches of Scotland. 23 



In a paper on the last stage of the Glacial period in the Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc, 1874 (vol. xxx, p. 337), I maintained that 

 subsequent to the last great glaciation of Scotland no sub- 

 mergence of the country has taken place beyond that slight change 

 of level which is marked by the estuary beds and raised beaches 

 a little above the present coastline. Along the shores of the 

 Firth of Forth this change of level does not seem to me to have 

 been more than about 30 feet. Such was also the opinion of Charles 

 Maclaren, a careful and accurate observer, who spent a long life in 

 that locality and knew it well. At the Firth of Tay the amount 

 does not seem to be any greater, and on going farther north the 

 change of level appears to me to become less. At Montrose, for 

 example, it does not seem to exceed 15 or at most 20 feet. Between 

 Montrose and Bervie the raised beach is well marked in many places, 

 but I could see no trace whatever of any higher ones at 50 or 100 feet. 

 On reaching Aberdeen the height is still less, apparently not more 

 than eight or ten feet along the coast of that county, nor does it seem 

 to be any more on the Banifshire coast. In the estuary of the 

 Ythan, half-way between Aberdeen and Peterhead, the change of 

 level can be well estimated and does not appear to exceed what 

 I have stated. I have examined that locality carefully and 

 repeatedly, but have never been able to perceive the least sign of 

 a raised beach at either 50 or 100 feet. 



In the valley of the Forth the old estuary-mud, or carse land, 

 extends west a long way past Stirling, up to near the Loch of 

 Menteith and Gartmore, rising gradually as we follow it inland to 

 a level of 40 or 45 feet. This gradual rise seems to be always the 

 case with a tidal mud as we trace it inland. The tidal wave rises 

 often considerably in moving up a valley, as we see on the Severn 

 at the present day. The fact of the carse land and alluvial loam of 

 the Forth rising to 40 or even 50 feet at its inland extremity does 

 not therefore imply a raised beach of that height at the coast. The 

 Loch of Menteith is bordered by a fine group of old moraines which 

 come down to the level of the carse, the lake itself being only 

 65 feet above the sea. These moraines were left during the retreat 

 of the last great mantle of ice. Now, if there had been any 

 subsequent submergence to the extent of 100 feet, it could not fail 

 to have left its mark on the front of these moraines. The absence of 

 anything of the sort is, I think, a proof that no such submergence 

 has taken place. The basin of the lake should also have been filled 

 •with marine silt, of which there is no trace. 



At Aberdeen we have moraines which come down close to the 

 present beach, as for example at the Broadhill on the east side of the 

 town. This Broadhill is one of the moraine heaps left by the glacier 

 of the Dee during the last great extension of the ice. It is 94 feet 

 high, and has been truncated apparently to some degree, or cut into, 

 along its seaward side by the raised beach, but we look in vain for 

 any evidence of sea-action upon it higher than a few feet above the 

 present reach of spring tides. At Belhelvie, a few miles north of 

 Aberdeen, we have another group of gravelly moraines left by the 



