On the Rise of the Shores of the Firth of Forth, 285 



number of seventy-two. These give an average height above 

 mean high water of 28*7 feet. Now, as the tides vary from 

 neaps to springs about 16 feet, we must deduct from this 

 half the amount, equal to 8 feet. This leaves for average 

 tides a height of 20 - 7. 



Now, as the oyster-bed of Mr Geikie, or rather his No. 1 

 (which I call a storm-raised bed), is 15 feet below the aver- 

 age of the streets of Leith, we have only to account for a 

 storm-wave, five feet in height, to throw up this so-called 

 raised sea-beach bed, so much insisted on by Maclaren and 

 Chambers. Such a state of the tides has often been observed 

 by the elder inhabitants of Leith, the effects of which could 

 not, of course, affect land lying below the houses. But let 

 us suppose the condition of Leith before or immediately 

 after the Romans laid the " Fishwife's Causeway," and man 

 had not placed barriers against the sea, but that the piers, 

 harbours, and houses of Leith, with all their defences, were 

 removed, old ocean would soon re-assert his former sway, 

 and claim as his domain the Links of Leith, and leave at all 

 high tides, and during north-east storms, effects equivalent 

 to those which make this storm-raised bed the stumbling- 

 block of all geologists who attempt to prove that we have 

 any very modern evidence of a subsidence of the sea or a 

 raising of the land.* 



That the shores of the Forth at Gran ton have not risen 

 since Hertford's invasion is equally evident from the history 

 of that cruel incursion as given by Knox : — " On the 3d of 

 May 1544, without knowledge of any man in Scotland (we 

 meane of such as suld haif had the care of the realme) was 

 seene a great navye of schippis aryving towardis the Firth. 

 The postis cum to the governour and cardinall (who boith 

 war in Edinburgh) what multitud of schippis ware seene, 

 and what course thei tuik. This was vpon the Setturday 

 befoir nune. Question was had, What suld thei meane ? 

 Some said it is no doubt but thei are Englischmen, and we 



* Since the above was written, the bed No. 7 of Mr Geikie's section has 

 been nearly all removed, the only portion remaining may be carried away in 

 six or eight cart loads. The section exhibits now, what it did before, that 

 humus and sand were alternate, as the carts which carried the stuff of th6 

 foundation were loaded anon with earth and then with sand. 



