Fingal and East Coast. 37 



The brook itself seems strikingly inadequate to have 

 hollowed out a chasm of such magnitude. But there is no 

 evidence of a sudden reft or of violent displacement ; and 

 the beds of rock dip at the same gentle inclination to 

 precisely the same quarter of the compass as the same 

 series of beds do, occurring both east and west from this 

 locality. One is naturally, in looking on such a scene, 

 tempted to account for its formation. In doing so, the 

 simply possible must yield to that which is probable. 



It is possible that the insignificant rill which I have men- 

 tioned may have carried down, one day with another, its 

 cubic foot of solid matter for some hundreds of thousands 

 of years, and so have effected the excavation of the 

 chasm above, and the enlargement of the vale below : 

 but it is probable that the valley of the South Esk, if not 

 entirely formed by diluvial denudation, is greatly indebted 

 to such a process for its present form and character. A 

 cataclysm or condition of supernatant fluids, which would 

 admit of a mighty torrent directed along the South Esk 

 valley, would necessitate the existence to a great distance 

 in every direction of many minor collateral and co- 

 operative currents : of these conditions there is, both 

 in the contents and figure of the valley in chief, and in 

 the relative position and aspect of its principal branches, 

 and their subordinate ramifications, the most conclusive 

 evidence. 



There can remain, I thmk then, no reasonable doubt of 

 the nature of the agency from which these lesser com- 

 municating valleys first derived their form and direction. 

 I do not mean that it has all been the work of one 

 sudden and stupendous deluge : on the contrary, there 

 exist so many remarkable natural witnesses to the 

 facts of the case, that but one conclusion remains 

 open to us, namely, that it is only after repeated sub- 

 mergencies our present dry land has attained its present 



