NOETHERN SCOTLAND. 



339 



ward — a proof -that the vipheaval was unequal in amount, as is at present the case 

 in Scandinavia.* The question naturally arises, whether this evident upheaval 

 took place at the termination of the glacial epoch, or whether it continued durino- 

 the historical age, down, perhaps, to our own time. It is the opinion of geologists 

 that the principal upheaval occurred during an epoch in which the climate was 

 colder than it is now, for the shells discovered on the raised heaches belono- in a 

 large measure to a more northern fauna than that of the neighbouring seas.f 

 However this may be, the village of Kinlochewe, on the western slope of E,oss, is 

 sometimes referred to in proof that the upheaval continued after man had taken 

 possession of the land. The Gaelic name of that village signifies " head of 

 Loch Ewe ; " but the loch terminates 1 ^ miles below the village, which stands 

 at the upper end of the land-locked Loch Maree. Hence, it is concluded, the 

 bottom which now separates Loch Maree from the sea, and through which runs 



Fig. 164. — The Parallel Eoads of Glexroy. 

 Scale 1 : 156,000. 



'^ 



57°; 



f 



'»*ji^vi«»^ 



-=-:^:i>".Vi^-^.^ss3fc!J:£iî- 



4.° 50' 



4 • 4 ' 



WofG 



2 Miles. 



the emissary of the lake, can have appeared only after the village had been 

 founded by the Gaels. This feature accounts for the humorous saying, that the 

 Gaelic was spoken even before the birth of the lakes. 



In the interior of Scotland there exist on the hillsides numerous lacustrine 

 beaches similar to those along the coast, and so wide and regular in the contour 

 as to be distinguishable even from a distance of several miles. The most famous 

 of these raised beaches are the "parallel roads" of Glenroy. They occupy corre- 

 sponding elevations on both sides of a glen descending towards Glenmore. There 

 are three parallel and horizontal " roads " on either side, at elevations of 

 respectively 860, 1,070, and 1,150 feet. The natives account for the existence of 

 these loads by asserting that they were constructed by the kings of old. Their 



* S. Laing, Nature, 1877. 



t Smith, Memoifs of the Wernerian Society. . 



