On the Bise of the Shores of the Firth of Forth, 283 
upon the whole, we cannot come to an exact conclusion as 
regards the time. We see, however, that 600 acres have 
been gained by the recedence of the sea, that the sea is 
receding now, and if the laws of nature are unchangeable, 
will continue to recede until some cause puts an end to it, 
the reverse of that which caused its beginning. 
Now, this simple appeal to facts is worth all the fanciful 
supposition of local upheavals insisted on by Sir Charles 
Lyell, Geikie, and others.* 
Mr Geikie, in his paper " On a Eise of the Coast of the 
Forth within the Historical Period" {Edin. New Phil. Jour, 
vol. xiv. p. 1 02), has illustrated, his communication by a sec- 
tion of a sand-pit. Junction Eoad, Leith. He states that in 
bed marked No. 5 in his diagram, which he calls a regularly 
stratified deposit of marine silt, he found fragments of Koman 
pottery, and that the strata with which this bed of silt 
is connected lie 25 feet above high-water mark, and 
are unequivocally those of the raised beach. He therefore 
infers that a rise in the land to this extent has taken place 
since the time of the Romans. 
In a communication to the Eoyal Society of Edinburgh, 
"On Hasty Generalisation in Geology," published in the 
Edin. New Phil Jour, vol. xvi. p. 266, and in a subsequent 
paper to this Society, " On the Danger of Hasty Gene- 
ralisation in Geology, with special reference to the so- 
called Eaised Sea-Beach at Leith," published in the second 
volume of our Proceedings, p. 430, I have shown that the 
result of careful investigations made in this sand-pit, along 
with my friend Dr M'Bain, convinced us, that there was no 
proof of any rise of the shore at Leitli within the historical 
period, and for the following reasons, which I shall briefly 
recapitulate : — First, as to bed No. 5, in which the so-called 
* " On a Rise of the Coast of the Forth within the Historical Period." — 
Edin. New Phil. Jour, vol, xiv. p. 102. 
Smitli of Jordanhill's paper on raised beaches is published in the " Edin- 
burgh New Philosopbical Journal," vol. xxv. p. 385, and in the " Memoirs of 
tlie Wernerian Society," vol. viii. Part L ; also in " Memoirs of the Wernerian 
Society," vol. viii. p. 58. 
Robert Chambers's paper, " Edinburgh Philosophical Journal," vol. xlix. 
p. 233. 
VOL. nr. 2 0 
