GLEN ROY, IN SCOTLAND. 
59 
there is no trace whatever, nor is there any 
indication that either of the three ever existed 
in the western half of the valley. When I first 
visited the region, these phenomena had already 
been the subject of earnest discussion among 
English geologists. The commonly accepted 
explanation of the facts was that these terraces 
marked ancient sea-levels at a time when the 
ocean penetrated much farther into the interior, 
and Glen Roy and the adjoining valleys were 
as many fiords or estuaries. Though the pres¬ 
ent elevation of the locality made such an in¬ 
terpretation improbable at first sight, the first 
or highest of the terraces being eleven hundred 
and forty-four feet above the present sea-level, 
the second eighty-two feet below the first, and 
the third and lowest two hundred and twelve 
feet below the second, or eight hundred odd 
feet above the level of the sea, it was thought 
that the oscillations of the land, its alternate 
subsidences and upheavals, proved by the mod¬ 
ern results of geology to have been so great 
and so frequent, might account even for so 
remarkable a change. There are, however, 
other objections to this theory not so easily 
explained away. There are no traces of or- 
