282 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



the ground now called Young's Yard, a little east of the 

 present harbour, nearly 100 yards south of where the sea 

 now reaches, at that part of the coast. 



We have seen, then, that there is a part, at least, of these 

 lands that have been formed by the recedence of the sea ; 

 and this being admitted, it is easy to show that the whole 

 has been formed in the same manner. If the whole of the 

 town lands of Musselburgh have been formed by the recedence 

 of the sea, we should reasonably expect that the strata of 

 the whole should be the same as that we know to have 

 been thus formed ; and if it is so, that circumstance alone 

 constitutes unquestionable evidence that the whole has been 

 so formed. 



Now, we see that the whole of these lands are what may 

 be called a dead level, — the highest knoll not rising 10 feet 

 above tide-mark, and some of them even below that mark ; for 

 we have seen the tide at the Millhill, and even at the Cross 

 of Musselburgh, and we see that the newly-formed land is 

 exactly similar in these respects. When we examine the 

 strata in the digging of foundations, wells, or such like, we 

 find fine sand above, then fine gravel, and lastly, on the level 

 of the mussel-bed, we find stones similar to those forming 

 that bed, and we see that the strata of the newly-formed 

 land are exactly the same. No other proof is required to 

 convince us that the whole has been formed in the same 

 manner. 



The time that these lands have been in forming cannot 

 be precisely known. Mr Hay suggests it as probable that 

 about 400 imperial acres had been formed in about 300 years. 

 This he calculated chiefly from analogy, drawn from his own 

 observations for a number of years, together with the obser- 

 vations of others who lived before him. 



We have seen there have been 10 chains gained at the 

 mouth of the Esk in about seventy-five years. Should this 

 breadth gradually decrease to nothing at the extremities of 

 the town lands, we would have 100 acres gained in seventy- 

 five years, or 400 acres in 300 years. This, however, supposes 

 that the formation had been uniformly progressive — an 

 assumption we are perhaps not warranted in making; so that, 



