IN SCOTLAND AND THE ISLANDS. HI 



consequence of the change of level. When the sea stood 

 at the former level, Islay must have consisted of a cluster 

 of isles. What at one time was under the dominion of the 

 sea consists now partly of arable land, partly of banks of 

 rolled stones, about the size of six-pound shot, partly of 

 downs formed of broken sea-shells, clay-slate, and quartz, 

 so minute as to be blown about by the wind — partly of 

 morasses and fresh water lakes round the head of Lochin- 

 daal. The former sea-line is as well defined as it is in 

 Rothesay Bay, or any part of the banks of the frith of 

 Clyde. Islay House, with its garden, and a good ex- 

 tent of its ground, stands over the plateau left by the re- 

 tiring of the sea. In various parts of the island, whatever 

 form the surface of this plateau has assumed, I have found 

 on digging, sea-sand mixed with shells of the species that 

 still abound in the various inlets ; in the parts of it con- 

 verted into morasses, large oaks are to be found, which 

 appear to have been growing on a bed of clay and sand 

 incumbent on a bed of sea-sand and sea-shells. 



The range between the traces of a former high water 

 mark, and the present low water marks of spring tides, is, 

 I would say, not under 40 feet, and I would almost ven- 

 ture to call it 45 feet. The west side of the parish pre- 

 sents a line of about twenty miles to the unobstructed flow 

 and swell of the Atlantic, and it is to this line the above 

 measurement is applicable." 



In the Island of Mull the same terraces are observable, 

 and the same marine remains are to be found. In Lis - 

 more there is a bed of shells composed of all the varieties 

 to be found on the coasts, which has formed a concretion 

 nearly as hard as the limestone rock which surrounds 

 it about 7 or 8 feet above the ground.* In Tirey, the 

 • Stat. Acct., vol. i. p. 494. 



