1903 - 4 .] Date of Upheaval of Raised Beaches in Scotland. 253 
its floods during so many centuries ? Besides, the flowing of the 
tides 25 feet higher would by no means help to explain the 
position of the anchors, as it is more likely that they would be lost 
on the shallow margin of a tidal river than in a depth of 25 feet 
of water. 
As a preliminary to the discussion of the more important 
archaeological phenomena of the Firth of Tay, Sir Archibald 
points out, in the words of Mr Robert Chambers, that “along the 
Carse of Gowrie many of the hillocks and eminences which rise 
above the general level of the plain bear names in which the Celtic 
word inch (island) occurs ; such as Inchyra, Megginch, Inchmichael, 
Inchmartin, Inchsture — as if a primitive people had originally 
recognised these as islets in the midst of the shallow firth.” 
(Ancient Sea Margins , p. 18.) To this is added the evidence of 
tradition to the effect that the Flaw Craig and the rock on 
which Castle Huntly stands bore iron rings, to which ships were 
fastened when the sea covered the surrounding carse lands. 
Finally, we have the following statement of the discovery of 
specific objects of iron, to which the author seems to attach great 
importance: — “Between 60 and 70 years ago a small anchor was 
dug up, not many feet beneath the surface, on a piece of low 
ground near Megginch (N. St. Ad., “Perthshire,” p. 378). Mr 
Chambers refers to another anchor as having been met with in 
casting a drain below the Flaw Craig ( Ancient Sea Margins , p. 19). 
But the most important and the most carefully investigated relic yet 
discovered in the district was an iron boat-hook (fig. 2), found 
in 1837 by some workmen on the farm of Inchmichael.” (Ibid., 
p. 19; and N. Phil. Journal, 1850, p. 233.) 
It is not surprising that the discovery of such an array of 
relics associated with early navigation, especially when brought 
before us by so skilled a writer, should carry some weight with 
general readers. It is therefore all the more necessary to inquire 
what their chronological value may be. 
With regard to the philological argument that the Gaelic word 
inis (an island) appears in the composition of several place-names 
in the Carse of Gowrie, it will be sufficient to observe that its 
English equivalent, inch, has often been applied to low-lying 
meadows near water, such as the North and South Inches in the 
