Mr Bald on the Skeleton of a Whale, S95 
to powder. Bones of equally open structure, which lay in the 
sludge, remain very entire. 
The situation in which this skeleton has been found, natural- 
ly suggests several very interesting points of inquiry connected 
with Geology, and in particular with the changes which have 
taken place in the bed of the Biver Forth. 
The skeleton, and the place where it was found, have been 
minutely examined by my friends, Thomas Allan, Esq. and 
James Jardine, Esq. Fellow of the Royal Society of Edin- 
burgh, and by Patrick Neill, Esq. and Melville Burd, Esq. 
Members of the Wernerian Society of Edinburgh; and Mr 
Jardine has ascertained, with his usual accuracy, that the 
place where the skeleton was found, is SO feet higher than 
the surface of the highest tide of the river Forth at the pre- 
sent day. This circumstance leads to this legitimate conclu- 
sion, that the tides, in the River Forth at some former pe- 
riod rose much higher than they do at present. Now, as in all 
the alluvial land which stretches along the River Forth, beds of 
sea-shells are found, it appears that the waters of the ocean 
must, at a remote period of time, have extended over all 
the flat lands or carses both to the west and east of Stirling 
Castle. At that period, the picturesque greenstone rocks of 
Stirling, of Abbey Craig, and of Craig Forth, must have form- 
ed islets in the sea, having an aspect somewhat similar to those 
in the Forth near Queensferry and Leith at the present day. 
We have every reason to believe that matters continued very 
long in this situation ; for we know from actual trials made, 
that the alluvial silt or sludge in the district of Stirling, is in 
some places nearly 100 feet in depth. 
To the eastward of the place where the skeleton was found, 
are the remains of a Roman Causeway. The traces of this cause- 
way were some years ago distinctly seen, while the present road 
by the foot of the Ochill Mountains was forming. This cause- 
way led southward to the Manor-ford or passing-place upon the 
River Forth. Here there was a Castellum, which is now de- 
stroyed, but which was in good preservation within these last 
forty years. It appears, therefore, that since the time of the 
Roman invasion, very little change has taken place either upon 
the bed of the Forth at this place, or upon the level of the 
