244 Proceedings of Boy al Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
Roman remains are known to have existed, and I have found no 
authentic evidence that in any way militates against the recent 
elevation of the land, but, on the contrary, several facts that tend 
to confirm it.” (Ibid., p. 107.) At Inveresk and Cramond all the 
Roman remains were, so far as he could discover, 60 or 70 feet 
above present high-water mark. He ridicules the tradition that 
some old carving to be seen on the Eagle Rock, near Cramond, 
and situated only a little above present high-water mark, was 
Roman workmanship. 
“ Antiquaries,” he writes, “ 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 Roman as the famous prae- 
torium of Jonathan Oldbuck. In a niche of the soft sandstone crag stands 
a rude figure, as like that of a human being as of an eagle, with a very 
short stump by way of legs, surmounted by a long and not very sym- 
metrical body, on one side of which an appendage that may be an arm 
hangs stiffly down, while the corresponding one shoots away up at an 
uncomfortable angle on the other side. Like other carvings on the shores 
of the Forth (as the figure near Dysart and Queen Margaret’s footstep at 
South Queensferry), it must take rank among the handiworks of idle 
peasants or truant schoolboys.” (Ibid., p. 110.) 
By way of strengthening his theory, he further observed that 
the Roman wall commenced at the Hill of Carriden ; that, accord- 
ing to the author of Caledonia Romana, the remains of the 
Roman Portus ad Vallum existed (near Camelon) down to the 
last century, and that an iron anchor was dug up in the same 
locality. These statements will be dealt with later on. 
In restricting his observations to the valley of the Forth, the 
author did not then think it necessary to the truth of the con- 
clusions of his paper “that the west coast of Scotland — as, for 
instance, at the termination of the Wall of Antonine — should be 
proved to have experienced any elevatory movements at all.’* 
However, in the following year he recurred to the subject in a 
more comprehensive communication to the Geological Society 
of London (Journal, March 19, 1862), entitled, “On the Date 
of the Last Elevation in Central Scotland,” from which it will be 
seen that he no longer confined himself to the east of Scotland, 
as he included in his purview the Firth of Clyde, and, indeed, 
“ the greater part of the British Isles.” 
Before proceeding to discuss the scientific value of the evidence- 
