On the Date of the Last Elevation of Central Scotland

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Abstract
That the central districts of Scothland, together with the greater part of the British Islands, have undergone a movement of upheaval within a comparatively recent geological period is a fact which has long been familiar to the geologist. A line of raised beach, with shells of living species still in a perfect state of preservation, fringes many parts of the coast, at a height of from 15 or 20 to upwards of 40 feet above the present sea-level. This difference of elevation may point either to different periods of upheaval or to one great upward movement which varied in intensity in different parts of the island. For facts so well known it is only necessary to refer here to the papers of Mr. Smith of Jordan Hill, Mr. Maclaren, Mr. Chambers, and others who have described the evidence which different parts of the Scottish coast-line furnish as to a recent rise. The object of the present communication is to inquire how far we have data for ascertaining the time at which at least the later stages of this rise took place. Ever since the pubhcation, in 1838, of Mr. Smith's great paper on the last changes of level in the British Islands ~, the belief has been universal that no alteration of the relative position of sea and land has taken place within the last two thousand years, the coast-line being the same now as it was at the time of the Roman invasion. I shall have occasion have occasion

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