THE AGE OV THE LAST UPRISE OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 187 



Part TV. — Co>XLrsiox. 



It now only remains for us to gather up in a few words the 

 evidence we have been considering bearing on tlie question, 

 when the last emergence of the northern portion of the British 

 Isles took place. We have seen that there is abundant evidence 

 of a higher civilization in a country the natives of which were 

 in a condition not much removed from that of the savage ; 

 certainly uncivilized. In the one case, we find axes, anchors, 

 and boat-hooks of iron, clinker-built boats; in the other, canoes 

 hollowed out of the trunks of trees, and we may suppose men 

 using for weapons, bows and arrows, and spears armed with heads 

 of stone or horn. This, however, is hypothetical. That tlie 

 objects of iron, etc., representing the higher civilization were 

 brought in by the Eomans, there can scarcely be a doubt. AVe 

 know as a fact that these invaders entered the country and 

 constructed a rampart across the land of Scotland about the 

 year a.d. 142, and we may be sure they did not rest content 

 with boats constructed after the manner of the Caledonian 

 canoes. Finally, we have the statement of the old historian 

 Gildas, reoardino- the mode bv which the Caledonian hiohlanders 

 attacked the Eonian settlements, paddling their canoes across 

 the arm of the sea which separated their habitation from those 

 of their enemies ; and lastly, the evidence aftbrded by the form 

 of the Eoman Vallum at either end, terminating at a height 

 overlooking the terraces which were once the sea-bed. All this 

 evidence is cumulative, and confirmatory of the view that at 

 the period of the Eoman occupation of Scotland in the latter 

 part of the second century of our era, the sea occupied 

 considerable tracts of the present land, not only along the 

 coasts, but running far up into the interior along the valleys of 

 the Tay, the Eorth, and the Clyde. 



Having established this point, the only question remaining 

 for us to discuss is, at what period did the land emerge to its 

 present level above the surface of the adjoining sea ? The 

 answer to this question can only be conjectural. It is probable 

 that the movement was slow at the commencement, and towards 

 the end : and if we suppose that the upward movement begun 

 at the commencement of the third century, it may not have 

 concluded till two or three centuries more had elapsed. The 

 only e^'idence that might have been educed on this sul)ject 

 would be that of the very oldest ecclesiastical buildings, and 

 the position of their sites, in reference to that of the terrace 



