55O Sea Terraces. 



salt water, which is now occupied simply by common 

 alluvial detritus. But the story does not stop there, 

 for together with the bones of the whales in the up- 

 raised marine clays of the Forth, implements of bone 

 and wood have been obtained, and in beds on the Clyde, 

 canoes were found in a state of preservation so perfect 

 that all their form and structure could be well made 

 out. Some of them were simply scooped in the trunks 

 of large trees, but others were built of planks nailed 

 together square-sterned boats indeed, built of well- 

 dressed planks and the inference has been drawn 

 by my colleague, Professor Greikie, who has described 

 them, that this last elevation took place at a time that 

 is possibly historical. 



There is one piece of evidence with respect to the 

 possible recent elevation of these terraces which I think 

 is deserving of attention, and it is this : In the neigh- 

 bourhood of Falkirk, on the south shore of the Firth 

 of Forth, there is a small stream, and several miles up 

 that stream, beyond the influence of the tide of the 

 present day, there were, at the end of last century, 

 remains of old Eoman docks, near the end of the 

 Roman Wall, usually called the Wall of Antoninus, 

 that stretched across Scotland from the Firth of Clyde 

 to the Firth of Forth. These docks are now no longer 

 to be seen ; but so perfect were they, that General Eoy, 

 when commencing the triangulation of Scotland for the 

 Ordnance Survey, was able to describe them in detail, 

 and actually to draw plans of them. When they were 

 built they were of course close to the tide, and stood on 

 the banks of a stream called the Carron, believed by 

 Professor Geikie to have been tidal ; but the sea does 

 not come near to them now. He therefore naturally 

 inferred that when they were constructed the relative 



