220 PKOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Mar. 19, 



preconceived opinions, and bore so closely on questions of the deepest 

 moment regarding the antiquity of man, that I felt the necessity of 

 examining other parts of the coast with the view of ascertaining how 

 far the movement may have been general over the central districts of 

 Scotland. It seemed to me advisable also to make a search through 

 such archaeological volumes as treat of our maritime antiquities, in 

 order to see whether any antiquary had detected proofs of physical 

 changes. The results of these inquiries are now communicated to 

 the Society. 



The Firths of Clyde, Forth, and Tay are each bordered with a 

 strip of fiat land, varying in breadth from a few yards to several 

 miles, and having a pretty uniform height of 20 or 25 feet above 

 high- water-mark. This level terrace is the latest* and on the whole 

 the most marked of the raised beaches. It must have been formed 

 when the land was from 20 to 30 feet lower than at present, and 

 evinces an upheaval which was nearly uniform over the whole of 

 the central valley of Scotland. What, then, was the date of this 

 upheaval ? "" 



The discovery of human remains in the sands and clays of the 

 raised beach affords the only ground for an answer to this question. 

 From these strata canoes, stone hatchets, boat-hooks, anchors, pot- 

 tery, and other works of art have been from time to time exhumed 

 on both sides of the island. These remains are usually claimed by 

 the antiquary. He arranges them in his museum according as they 

 belong to the Age of Stone, of Bronze, or of Iron. He speculates 

 from them as to the character of the early races, and from the indi- 

 cations which they may afford he compiles his prehistoric annals. 

 But the geologist, too, has an interest in them. To him they are true 

 fossils, as much as the footprint of a Eeptile, the track of a Crustacean, 

 or the tube of an Annelide. He deals with them as he deals with 

 other evidence of the former presence of animal life. The circum- 

 stance of their occurrence, the nature of the material in which they 

 lie imbedded, the indications which they may afford of former di- 

 versities of surface, whether of lake or river, land or sea, their 

 association with the bones of animals now rare or extinct, and then 



pottery in the sands and silt of the section described by me as occurring at Leith. 

 Attempts have been made to show that the deposit in which these fragments 

 occur is merely artificial ground. Since this idea was suggested I have several 

 times visited the sand-pit, both alone and in company with observers of greater 

 experience than myself, and have been unable to alter the opinion I originally 

 formed as to the true aqueous origin of the upper silt and sand. A hasty in- 

 spection might lead one to confound these beds with an unconformable artificial 

 earth which overlaps them, and to class together the contents of two very dif- 

 ferent formations. The occurrence, however, of pottery, to which Mr. Franks 

 of the British Museum can hardly assign a higher antiquity than 700 years, 

 seems to show that the upper parts of this series of strata have been re-assorted 

 in more recent times than I had supposed. But the subject requires further 

 investigation, and until this is given, I am unwilling to depart from my original 

 conclusion. — July 18, 1862. 



* There are occasional traces of a later terrace, as along the Clyde at Glasgow, 

 but these may for the present be disregarded. 



