288 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



or the Hunter's Craig,' is shown with the alleged effigy of 

 an eagle carved on its eastern front, a little above high-water 

 mark. Antiquarians have grown eloquent at the sight of 

 this relic of the creative genius of the old Legionaries. But 

 the carving has really about as much claim to be considered 

 Eoman as the famous Proetorium of Jonathan Oldbuck. 

 Like other carvings on the shores of the Forth, it must 

 rank among the handiwork of idle peasants or truant school- 

 boys.'' * 



So far Mr Geikie. 



Now, Mr Chairman, it is painful to contemplate the posi- 

 tion of Sir Charles Lyell, who places confidence in a paper 

 which was the result of only a few days' exploration from the 

 Esk at Musselburgh to the Avon near Grangemouth. 



Had Mr Geikie, with a true geologic spirit, set himself to 

 study the whole question, instead of following in the wake 

 of what Maclaren had written, and then astonishing the 

 Geological Society with the mighty discovery that the south 

 shore of the Forth had risen 25 feet since the Eoman period, 

 he would have saved himself a sad humiliation, and this 

 Society the tedium of this paper. But, where older eyes 

 and more reflective heads saw evidence of the imperial eagle 

 on the Hunter's Craig at Cramond, he only sees the hand- 

 mark of idle peasants or truant schoolboys. In short, it 

 was a fact that would not pack into the mare's nest he had 

 found at Leith, and so he flippantly dismisses it ; and though 

 Sir Charles Lyell has, since my first paper, not given place 

 to Geikie's Leith mistake, he homologates the sneer against 

 archaeologists. This remarkable carving on the Hunter's 

 Craig at Cramond is within 10 or 12 feet of high-water 

 mark, and would necessarily not have been available to a 

 Boman sculptor if Geikie's theory were true. But there it 

 stands ; and if this ingenious writer can produce such a 

 carving on such a stone, with all the aid of modern tools, 

 with his own hand, during a month, one will then perhaps 

 believe with him, that such perseverance may yet be found 

 among truant schoolboys. Having paid many visits to Cra- 

 mond, we challenge any one to point out, even within 10 



* Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, New Series, vol. xiv. p. 109. 



