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 Prsetorium 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 
archfeologists. 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 
Eoman 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 Avith him, that such perseverance may j^i be found 
among truant schoolboys. Having paid many visits to Cra- 
mond, we challenge any one to point out, even within 10 
* Edijibiirgh Philosophical .Journal, New Series, vol. xiv. p. 109. 
