1'865.] JAMIESON — LAST CHANGES IN SCOTLAND. 195 



3rd, The country emerged from the water, but ice still lay on 

 much of the land, and perhaps reoccupied some of the tracts over 

 which the sea had spread, deranging by its intrusive action the 

 marine beds of the preceding period. 



4th. The glaciers at length began their final retreat, leaving 

 behind them heaps of rough debris and mounds of gravel, more 

 especially at those points where they halted for a time. Large 

 quantities of rolled gravel were also strewed along the valleys by 

 the water issuing from beneath the ice, and by the floods occa- 

 sioned by rapid thaws, the absence of vegetation on much of the 

 surface probably contributing to the effect. 



5th. By this time the land attained a higher level than it has at 

 present, so that the area of Britain was much larger than it is now, 

 and, instead of presenting the appearance of a group of islands, 

 formed a mass of connected land united to the Continent of Europe, 

 the flora and fauna of which now spread into it. Woods of Birch, 

 Hazel, Alder, and other trees covered the surface, and the Great Irish 

 Elk, the Red Deer, the Great Wild BuU, the Wolf, the Bear, the 

 Beaver, and probably the Eeindeer, were amongst its inhabitants. 

 In the valleys the rivers were gradually cutting their way through 

 the masses of glacial debris to lower levels, and in doing so spread 

 out much gravel and alluvial soil along their banks. This period is 

 represented by the submarine forest and bed of peat underlying tlie 

 Carses of the Tay and Forth. 



6th. A depression now took place, cutting off the land- connexion 

 with the Continent, isolating Ireland and the various islands, and 

 thus stopping the land-migration from Europe. In the valley of 

 the Tay and Forth this old coast-line was 25 or 30 feet above the 

 present, but on the coast of Aberdeenshire not beyond 8 or 10. 

 The old estuarine beds, or Carses, of the Forth, Tay, and other rivers 

 were formed, together with corresponding shingle-beaches and caves 

 along the coast. Man having by this time got into the country, 

 evidence of his presence appears in the shape of canoes and primi- 

 tive weapons of stone and horn buried in deposits of the period. 



7th. A movement of elevation (whether gradual or sudden is un- 

 certain) at length took place, so that the land attained its present 

 position, thereby laying dry the Carse districts and old coast-line. 

 Since this occurred much peat has been formed, and a great amount 

 of blown sand has been heaped up on certain parts of the coast. In 

 some districts the natives continued for a time to use tools and 

 weapons of flint and stone, and left shell-mounds in the neighbour- 

 hood of the estuaries. Some of the wild animals were gradually 

 extirpated, such as the Great Wild Bull, the Bear, the Beaver, 

 the WoLf, and the Capercailzie, — the Great Elk and the Reindeer 

 having probably disappeared at an earlier period. Since the dawn 

 of Scottish history, and the occupation of the lowlands by the Saxon 

 race, no noticeable change of level has been observed. 



§ 9. Appendix, with Lists op Shells. 

 The following lists of shells oM^e their value almost entirely to the 

 kind assistance I have received from Mr, J. Gwyn Jeflreys, F,R,S., 



