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REV. THOMAS BROWN ON THE OLD RIVER TERRACES 



under the shadow of Ben Ledi. First, there is the present shore of the lake, 

 above which rises the second terrace to the height of nearly fourteen feet, and 

 this in its turn is surmounted by the third, about thirty-seven feet over the 

 water. Their position is well given in sketch 9. The point seen in the 

 distance is perhaps the spot where the highest terrace is best displayed, and. 

 is given more fully from the upper side in sketch 10. When I first saw it in 

 1867 its form was that of the dotted line, a shelf projecting and running at its 

 own level along the mountain side. Now it has been cut up by the railway, 

 which has been carried for a considerable distance through these terraces, 

 showing many remarkable examples of drifted gravels and stratified .sands, 

 with, in some instances, underlying boulder-clay. 



Sketch 10. — Loch Lubnaig, looking down. 



These deposits on Loch Lubnaig would seem to point to a time when the 

 waters of the lake stood permanently higher than now. One of our best geo- 

 logists, Mr Milne Home, has advocated this view, placing the barrier which 

 held back the waters, at the pass of Leny ; and it would have been difficult 

 to resist this opinion, but for the circumstance that when we get below the pass 

 we find the same terraces quietly falling into their 'places, and resuming their 

 course as before. Sketch 11 shows their form when they leave the narrow por- 

 tion of the valley, going off towards Callander on the left bank — a similar appear- 

 ance being presented as they sweep round towards Loch Vennachar on the right. 

 The height of the terrace levels is almost identically the same with those on 

 the shores of Loch Lubnaig, and there is the closest resemblance in their inter- 



