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 tliei tuik. This w^as 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 thfe carts which carried the stuff of th6 
foundation were loaded anon with earth and then with sand. ' 
