of Edinhurgli, Session 1883-84. 
755 
obtained in the Forth district at the time when the buried forest of 
the Tay stretched away out to sea. In place of the flats of the 
Stirling and Falkirk Carse and the waters of the estuary of the Forth, 
we see a broad and gently sloping valley clothed with thick forests, 
through which the ancient Eiver Forth winds far away to the east, 
to mingle its waters in all probability with those of the Ehine, 
which at that time flowed northward through the area now covered 
by the North Sea. How long those conditions obtained we have 
no means of estimating, all one can say is that it was probably at 
or about that time that Neolithic man entered Britain. These geogra- 
phical and climatic conditions eventually become changed. Britain 
is insulated, and a cold, wet, and ungenial climate supervenes. The 
forests decay more or less rapidly, while marshes and bogs extend 
their boundaries. Local glaciers exist in some of our mountain 
glens, and flooded rivers carry seaward the trunks and branches 
of many a fallen monarch of the forest. The sea at this time 
washes the 45-50 feet level, and along the shores live Neolithic 
fishermen who revel in a molluscan diet, and now and again succeed 
in capturing a whale. 
Such, I believe, were the general conditions that obtained during 
the accumulation of the gravel and sand with drifted trees at 
Musselburgh. The peat and sand which overlie the tree-bearing 
beds belong to a much more recent time ; but whether they are 
older or younger than the 25 feet beach there is no evidence to 
show. I need hardly add that the deposits of the 45-50 feet beach 
are of post-glacial age, — being younger than the estuarine-marine 
deposits of the 100 feet terrace, — which latter, as I have shown 
elsewhere, must be classed as of late glacial age. 
4. On a Special Class of Partitions. By Professor Tait. 
5. Observations on a Green Sun, and Associated Phenomena. 
By Professor C. Michie Smith. 
6. Analysis of the Principles of Economics. Part Y. — 
Psychological. By Mr P. Geddes. 
