164 Proceedings of the 



Height of Loch Lomond above sea, ... 23 Feet, 



,, of Endrick above do. one mile from spot indicated, and 



where shells and horn found, . . . 30 „ 



,, of the surface of ground above sea as taken from rail- 

 way plans, ..... 121 „ 

 So that, as near as can be calculated, the articles lay from 100 to 103 feet 

 above the level of the sea." 



Dr John Alexander Smith said, the marine shells found at Croftamie 

 now exhibited, consisted, he belie ved, of the following species : — Cyprina 

 islandica, Astarte eliptica, and A. compressa, Fusus antiquus, Lit- 

 torina Uttorea, our common whelk or periwinkle, and the shelly base of a 

 species of Balanus, adherent to a small stone. Other shells were seen 

 in the railway cutting, but these were all that had been preserved ; and 

 they are all shells at present inhabiting our Scottish seas. The small 

 stone alluded to was of limestone. The horn might be supposed to belong 

 to the red-deer Cervus elaphus ; but from its smoothness and compressed 

 character he was inclined to believe it to be that of the reindeer, Cervus 

 tarandus, remains of which had been described by Dr Scoular as having 

 been found in the valley of the Clyde. The smoothness of the horn, should 

 it still be considered that of a red-deer, might, perhaps, be supposed to 

 be accounted for by its having rolled for some time among the stones and 

 sand of a sea-shore. The comparatively high position in which these 

 marine remains were found was exceedingly interesting, as there could 

 be no doubt of the correctness of the respective measurements above the 

 sea-level given in Mr M'Farlane's exact and minutely detailed communi- 

 cation. In the " Memoirs of the Wernerian Society" for 1822, Mr Adam- 

 son describes several marine deposits on the margin of Loch Lomond ; one 

 of these was about eight or ten feet above the highest level of the present 

 waters of the loch, and about two miles N.W. of the mouth of the Endrick. 

 And in two other localities — one on the island of Inch Lonach, opposite 

 the village of Luss ; and the other on the lands of H. M'D. Buchanan, Esq., 

 near the south-east angle of the loch ; the shells (corresponding in cha- 

 racter to those exhibited) begin to appear between the highest and lowest, 

 or winter and summer, surfaces of the loch. They are found in a bed of 

 brown clay under a slight covering of coarse gravel ; and Mr Adamson 

 considered these deposits could not be more than about 22 feet above 

 the present sea-level. Here, then, we have, in the first place, a series of 

 marine deposits, at or a very little above the present level of Loch 

 Lomond, pointing to a very different state of matters, when Loch Lomond 

 existed as an arm of the sea, with its marine inhabitants ; giving us an 

 elevation now of about 22 or 23 feet above the present sea-level, — and, 

 secondly, the marine deposit in the valley of the Endrick, a few spoils 

 of which are before us, found at an elevation of 100 or 103 feet above the 

 present level of the sea. On referring to Mr Robert Chambers's work 

 on "Ancient Sea Margins," he found in the Appendix references to 

 various terraces as existing both in the Firth of Forth and in the Firth 



