472 ON THE BED OF THE GERMAN OCEAN 



the famous castle of Cardinal Beatoun, which is 

 said originally to have been at some distance from 

 the sea, now almost overhangs it ; and, indeed, 

 this fine ruin must ere long fall a prey to the 

 waves : from St Andrew's, northward to Eden 

 Water and the River Tay, the coast presents a 

 sandy beach, and is so liable to shift, that it is 

 difficult to trace the changes it may have under- 

 gone. It is certain, however, that within the last 

 century, the sea has made such an impression up- 

 Foifar and qu the Sauds of Barry, on the northern side of the 



Kincardine 



Tay, that the light-houses at the entrance of that 

 rirer, which were formerly erected at the southern 

 extremity of Button-ness, have been from time ^:o 

 time removed about a mile and a quarter farther 

 northward, on account of the wasting and shifting 

 of these sandy shores, and that the spot on which 

 the outer light-house stood early in the seventeenth 

 century, is now two or three fathoms under water, 

 and is at least three quarters of a mile within 

 flood-mark. These facts I state from information 

 obligingly communicated to me by George Clark, 

 Esq. Master of the Trinity- House, Dundee, from 

 the records of that corporation. From the Tay 

 all the way along the coast of Forfar and Kincar- 

 dine to Stonehaven, the shores exhibit rocks of se- 

 condary or newer formations, as sandstone and 

 breccia, ana here the effects of the sea are in 

 many places very perceptible : particularly about 

 half a mile to the westward of the town of Ar^ 



