48 DAVID MILNE HOME ON THE 
been part of the ruins from the fort above.” He had previously mentioned, that 
between the Chapel Hill and the “margin of the river, lies the Forth and Clyde 
Canal, the surface of which is twenty feet above high-water mark, and the base 
of the hill five or six feet higher.” 
If the Roman antiquities here mentioned be the same as those described in 
the Statistical Account, their position is not correctly stated by Professor 
GeEIkiE. They can in no sense be represented as having fallen from the fort 
above. The relics were found not (as he says) at various depths in the alluvium, 
but “in a subterranean recess,” 2.é., in a cavity which contained them. As there 
were vases as well as coins, the probability is that it was a grave. Now, as 
this recess, when formed, must have been several feet below the surface of the 
ground, and as the surface of the ground is admitted to have been only twenty 
feet above the present high-water mark, the “recess” must have been at least 
seven or eight feet under the sea, if, during the Roman occupation, the land was 
twenty-five feet lower than now. 
(2.) Another fact of the same kind is mentioned by Mr James Smita of 
Jordanhill—viz., that some Roman coins were found at Ferrydike (which is not 
far from Chapel Hill), within ten feet of the high-water level.”—Newer Pliocene 
Geology, p. 15. 
(3.) All along the narrow stripe of low land, which lies between Chapel 
Hill and Dumbarton, Roman remains of various kinds have been discovered, 
implying that this low land certainly could not have at that time been occupied 
by the sea. The public road between Chapel Hill and the town of Dumbarton 
runs along this plain, keeping the highest parts of it; and I see the heights 
above the sea marked on the Ordnance Survey maps at various points as fol- 
lows :—As the figures on the map are above the medium sea-level, I have 
deducted eight from them to get the height above high water. Opposite to 
Dunbuck Hill, where the stripe of land is 320 yards wide, the height above 
high water is 11 feet; one quarter of a mile to the west, 11 feet; half a mile 
farther west, 5 feet; half a mile farther west, 8 feet ; one mile farther west, 10 
feet ; half a mile farther west, 11 feet; one mile farther west, 10 feet ; nearer 
Dumbarton, 4 feet. Professor GEIKIE, in the passage quoted by me at the 
commencement of this paper, admits that before the last rise of land, the whole 
district to the west of Chapel Hill was covered by the sea at high water. Now 
it is well known, from various authentic sources, that the Romans had a colony 
and a garrison at Dumbarton. In fact, it was for a time the capital, so to 
speak, of the Roman province which was attempted to be formed in that part of 
Britain. But to this town they had no access, except from the eastward ; and 
accordingly a military way, with several forts, existed between Dumbarton and 
Chapel Hill. 
One of these forts was at Dunbuck; and the remains of it, consisting of 
solid masonry, are referred to by several recent authors. 
