AND BRITISH CHANNEL. 471 



dens and fields, laid waste the piers, and even 

 undermined and carried away dwelling-housea. 

 In the parish of Grail, some slender remains of 

 a Priory existed so late as the year 1803, which 

 are now washed entirely away, with its ancient 

 gardens, &c. ; but the adjoining grounds still 

 retain the name of the Croft Lands of the 

 Priory. The point called Fifeness, affords an- 

 other proof of the desolating effects of the sea 

 upon the land. The section of the coast here 

 exhibits strata of a very soft and friable sand- 

 stone, with ironstone and shale. This section 

 I have distinctly traced between Fifeness and 

 the Carr Rock, which lies about a mile and a 

 half off Fifeness : the whole distance between 

 it and the shore forms a tract of shoals and 

 half-tide rocks ; and as this series of rocks, so 

 easily worn away by the sea, can again be traced 

 near Kingsbarns, at the opposite side of the bay, 

 it seems extremely probable, that, at no very 

 distant period in the history of the globe, this 

 space between the Carr Rock and the land of 

 Fifeness, may have consisted of firm ground. 

 Along the shores of Balcomie and Cambo, be- 

 longing to the Earl of Kellie, and the estate of 

 Pitmiily, considerable sums have been expended 

 in building and re-building fences against the en- 

 croachments of the sea ; and, indeed, many of the 

 proprietors along the shores of the Frith of Forth, 

 finding this an endless task, have, for the present, 

 given it up as a hopeless case. At St Andrew's 



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