334 MR MILNE ON THE MID-LOTHIAN AND EAST-LOTHIAN COAL-FIELDS. 



was in many respects much the same as it is at present. The character of its 

 vegetation, and the description of animals which inhabit it, could not have been 

 very different from what they are in our own epoch. We see from the remains 

 of oak trees and hazel nuts found in the Portobello clay, that there were forests 

 in the country, and that these forests contained trees of the same sort as those 

 which we behold flourishing. We see from the remains of deer, of whales, of the 

 grampus and the seal which were discovered in this deposit, in the immediately 

 adjoining districts, that the same sort of animals which exist now, moved then 

 on the land and in the waters. 



5. The next epoch in the history of these superficial deposits shews, that 

 another change subsequently took place in the relative level of sea and land, by 

 which the waters were brought down to a level much nearer that which they now 

 occupy. I allude to the period, during which there was formed the old bank, that 

 has been described in the former part of this memoir, as running nearly parallel 

 to the present shore, and the base of which is between 30 and 40 feet above the 

 level of the sea at high- water mark. That this old bank is an ancient sea-cUff' 

 cannot be doubted by any one who looks at its parallelism with the shore, — ^the 

 uniformity in the height of its base above the sea, and the occurrence of marine 

 shells or sand almost every where between its base and the sea. That cliff, it is 

 true, is in some places so worn down, as not to be now traceable ; and almost every 

 where it has a slope which is possessed by no existing sea-cUff, the base of which 

 is washed by the waves. But these circumstances so far from being incongruous 

 with the opinion above stated, serve in the strongest way to confirm its accuracy. 



6. The sea then stood only between 30 and 40 feet above its present level, — 

 so that, after the epoch of the deposit last described, there must have been an 

 elevation of the land, to the extent of nearly 700 feet. But after the formation of 

 this old sea-bank just mentioned, an opposite change of levels still more pro- 

 digious must have taken place. For we have seen that, after this period, — nay, 

 after the formation of many of our existing valleys, — and after the surface of 

 the country was covered with vegetation, — there was spread over this district, 

 what I have termed an upper covering of gravel and boulders, and tJiat to the 

 height of no less than 900 feet above the sea. If this be the fact, it necessarily 

 suggests a revolution of a most stupendous character, for it is difficult to ex- 

 plain the phenomena in any other way, than by supposing that the whole dis- 

 trict had sunk, so as to be submerged for a time beneath the waters of the 

 ocean, — and that it afterwards rose up to the level which it has ever since pre- 

 served. I confess that this is a supposition which would requne to be confirmed 

 by very strong evidence indeed, before it can be assented to. It appears to me, 

 however, to be an inference, and the only inference, deducible from the facts 

 described in a previous part of this memoir ; — and therefore that it must be ad- 

 mitted and credited, notwithstanding our natural and very salutary aversion 



