108 Mr Geikie on a Rise of 
must have washed the foot of the heights of Inveresk, on 
which the town stood, ascending far up the valley of the Esk, 
and making the mouth of that river a safe and commodious 
harbour. Had it not been so, it is difficult to see how the 
Romans should have made choice of such a shoaling estuary 
as that of the Esk, and have planted their town on an incon- 
venient narrow ridge, at some distance from their harbour, 
when a broad open plain lay along either side of the river, 
and skirted the shores of the Firth. But we see at once the 
expediency of the choice, if we allow that in their days the 
flat plain was covered by the sea at high-water, and that they 
built their houses along the only space available here— 
namely, the declivity that overhung the beach, whence they 
commanded a wide view of the sea towards the north, and of 
the wild bosky country that stretched southwards towards the 
Pentland Hills. 
From Inveresk the shore westwards must have had a greatly 
more sinuous outline than that which it exhibits at the present 
day. The old coast line is still well preserved at several 
points ; and from its remains we can easily see how varied and 
broken must have been the configuration of the coast, which 
now presents scarcely any modifications of its long sweeping 
lines. At Portobello, for example, the sea ran up the valley 
of the Friggate Burn, and from washing the stiff boulder clay 
that formed its banks, probably produced the finely stratified 
clay which now lies along the sides of the valley at the brick- 
work, and containstrunks and branchesof still indigenous trees, 
with shells of the Scrobicularia piperata. A Roman road is 
believed to have crossed near the mouth of this valley, running 
by Jock’s Lodge, the northern outskirts of Edinburgh, and 
Davidson’s Mains, to the station at Cramond. This road, at 
its seaward portion, lies above the limit of the gained land. 
Passing still westwards we reach Leith, which, at the period 
of the Roman occupation, seems to have been a muddy flat, 
only laid bare by the recession of the tide. The extent of 
ground then covered by the sea must have been great, for 
the tides rose up the valley of the Water of Leith towards 
Canonmills. There is no record, however, of this inlet having 
been used as a Roman port, nor do we encounter any other 
