XCiv PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL S0CIET5T. [May 1904, 



shores of the mainland of Scotland, would undoubtedly have had 

 their fringe of terraces. The conditions for the development and 

 preservation of the beaches were so entirely favourable, that their 

 absence can only be legitimately accounted for on the supposition 

 that they can never have existed here. Still farther north, among 

 the Faeroe Isles, no trace of any raised beaches is to be found among 

 the numerous natural harbours and creeks that break the monotony 

 of the vast ranges of basalt-precipice. Here, again, we cannot 

 suppose that any such beaches were ever formed. 



If, now, we turn to the southward extension of the Scottish 

 raised beaches, we find these features beginning to lose their 

 distinctness as they are traced into England. The 100-foot beach, 

 which has not been recognized along the northern coast of Sutherland 

 or in Caithness, appears also to fail before it reaches the English 

 coast. It is well-marked in the estuaries of the Clyde and Forth, 

 whence in a fragmentary condition it has been traced into AVigton- 

 shire on the one side, and to the north of Berwickshire on the other. 

 But no remnants of it appear to have been detected in the North of 

 England. 



It is much to be wished that a series of detailed investigations, 

 similar to those desiderated for Scotland, should be undertaken for 

 the far fainter and more fragmentary raised beaches of England 

 and Wales. At present no one has attempted to correlate these 

 shore-lines in the two kingdoms. South of the Tweed the evidence 

 is confessedly imperfect, but although a passing observer may be 

 struck by the absence of the terraces which are so distinctive a 

 feature in Scotland, a more sedulous search might yet detect them 

 in places where they have not hitherto been recognized. 



A raised beach standing at a maximum height of about 40 feet 

 above high-water mark has almost entirely disappeared from the 

 eastern coast of England, the only surviving portions being apparently 

 that at Saltburn, and perhaps that at Hunstanton. 1 The presence 

 of Glacial Drift above the raised beach of East Yorkshire would seem 

 to place that old shore-line back in the Glacial Period. It may 

 possibly be coaeval with the 50-foot beach of Scotland, perhaps even 

 older. On the opposite side of the island a raised beach at St. Bees 

 stands between 20 and 30 feet above the sea. It might be surmised 

 to be of post-Glacial age, and to belong to the same interval as that 

 which is marked by the 25-foot beach of Scotland and the North - 



1 C. Eeid, ' Geology of Holderness ' Mem. Geol. Surv. (1885) p. 72. 



