1903 - 4 .] Date of Upheaval of Raised Beaches in Scotland. 261 
In looking about for positive evidence in support of tlie pre- 
Roman theory, we shall first of all deal with the wooden roadway 
and the so-called Roman camp-kettle, which Sir Archibald Geikie 
did not think of sufficient archaeological value to be discussed 
among the evidential materials from the Forth valley, 
Nothing can be more certain than that the chronological 
sequence in the physical phenomena of the Forth valley was sea, 
forest, peat, and modern cultivation — the last stage being due to 
the removal of the peat by the hand of man. Now, objects of 
human workmanship which happened to be lost or abandoned in 
these woods became ultimately covered over with peat, and so were 
less liable to the ordinary processes of decay. Hence such 
relics, when recovered in these circumstances, are often in an 
excellent state of preservation. Of the condition of the peat mosses 
of Kincardine and Flanders towards the end of the eighteenth 
century, we have a good account by the Rev. Christopher Tait, 
minister of the parish of Kincardine (Trans. Roy. Soe. Edin ., 
vol. iii.), from which the following is an interesting extract . 
“ The trees are oak, birch, hazel, alder, willow, and in one place there 
are a few firs. Among these the oak abounds most, especially on the 
west side of the moss, where forty large trees of this species were lately 
found lying by their roots, and as close to one another as they can be 
supposed to have grown. One of these oaks measures 50 feet in length 
and more than 3 feet in diameter, and 314 circles or years’ growths were 
counted in one of the roots.” (Ibid., p. 272.) 
He further observes that the trees were not blown down, but cut 
about 2 feet from the ground. “ The marks of an axe, not ex- 
ceeding 2J inches in breadth, are sometimes discernible on the 
lower ends of these trees.” 
The Roman roadway is thus described : — 
“That a people more civilised than the ancient Caledonians must 
have been in this country before the moss of Kincardine existed is 
completely established by the discovery of a road on the surface of the 
clay at the bottom of that moss, after the peat, to the depth of 8 feet, 
had been removed. The part of this road already discovered is about 
70 yards long ; the breadth of it is 4 yards, and it is constructed of trees 
measuring from 9 to 12 inches in diameter, laid in the direction of the 
road. Across these have been laid other trees about half their size, and 
the whole has been covered with brushwood. The depths of the materials 
varies in conformity to the nature of the soil ; the trees, which are laid 
