stating that any indications of oakum were perceptible. The fact is, that nothing of the kind was necessary. Both canoes were hollowed out of single trees. Of what use, therefore, could oakum have been? Caulking was unnecessary. The stern of the largest is precisely the same as others I have seen, a moveable board; but clay, not oakum, has been applied at the only points through which water was at all likely to ooze. The other canoe has a closed stern.

"A more curious feature presented itself in regard to a third canoe of small dimensions, found within a few yards of the other two. Underneath this third boat was a small piece of lead, bearing the evident marks of iron nail heads, which had perforated it. The lead seems quite extraneous to the boat; but how it came there, or what purpose it served, is puzzling. There can be no doubt of the fact; for the person who found the lead gave it to me within a few hours after he got it, and had no earthly motive to misrepresent the matter. My opinion is, that the lead was plunder from some civilized people who may have visited even the remote shores of the estuary of the Clyde. We know the people of Tyre did visit Cornwall in search of tin and lead, thousands of years ago, and what is more likely than that they should follow up their exploration of the western side of the island, through the Irish sea? This, of course, is mere conjecture; and I throw out the idea as the best that at present occurs to me in the way of explanation, though I am not satisfied with it in my own mind." The evidence afforded us by the embedding of these canoes, carries us back into a very remote antiquity. We must nevertheless clearly distinguish between this period and that during which the formation of the raised beaches was being accomplished. It requires no more for the embedding of the canoes, than that along the flat marshes of the Clyde there should have existed considerable swamps, lying very low, and subject to inundation every tide; and that this may have been the case during the last two thousand years is very probable. This would give us a considerable rise in the surface of the ground in those localities, but one less attributable to change from elevation than to causes similar to those which are now giving a yearly increase in surface on the Clyde between Helensburgh and Dumbarton, the deposit of large masses of detritus over the widened mouth of the estuary-in other words, the formation of a delta. And, that such a supposition is by no means too extreme, the alterations which have taken effect on the Clyde, within the period to which our annals refer, sufficiently attest.

But that the great geological changes in the relative levels of the

land and sea are carried back into an antiquity very much greater than the period to which authentic history reaches, is proved by the oldest civilized remains of which Scotland can boast-I mean those of the Romans. My purpose requires me to refer to only one of these, the site of the last co-terminating fort upon the Roman wall of Antoninus, or Graham's Dyke, as it is commonly called. This site is occupied by the ruins of a modern fortalice, Dunglass Castle, and has also been selected as the appropriate spot on which to erect an honorary tribute to Henry Bell, the first proprietor of steamboats on the Clyde.

You may be aware that "the first time the isthmus between the Clyde and the Forth was fortified by the Romans was in the year 81, while Titus, the conqueror of Jerusalem, was emperor. This was done by Agricola, during his fourth summer in Caledonia. He placed, however, merely a row of forts, without any connecting wall or curtain, having ulterior plans which were marred by the death of his patron Titus, and his recal by Domitian. The wall was constructed about sixty years afterwards, (answering to the year A.D. 140), by Julius Urbicus, the Governor of Britain under Antoninus Pius. The plan of this military fortification was a great trench, stretching from Clyde to Forth-at Dunglass rocky promontory on the former, to Cariden on the latter, in line with and connecting the old forts of Agricola, but with a number of additional ones placed at intervals. The earth from the trench was thrown up into a rampart on the south side, and faced at some places with stone, at others with turf, and along the south ran a paved military way. The distance between the forts was generally two miles. It was not nearly so stupendous a work as the great wall of Hadrian, between the Solway and the Tyne, which was of stone."

I have now to notice that, "when both walls were built, they were erected with reference to a sea-level at either end, corresponding very nearly, if not entirely, with that at present existing in both the Scotch and English estuaries."—(Mr. Buchanan's letter to me.) If Dunglass was the site of the terminating fort on the Clyde estuary, its situation, almost on a line with the present surface of the water, affords a proof that the relative level of the sea is not lower now than it was in the year 140, or 1,710 years ago.

If, then, 2,000 years has seen such a slow rise as merely to convert a swamp into dry ground, almost without raising it at all, except where that has been done through artificial means adopted by man, how shall we calculate the epochs necessary for the formation of the numerous beaches found at so many various heights from the present sea-level

up to 360 feet? But this is not all. There are terraces covered by the sea. This introduces to us a new element in the computation, namely, that the movements have been downwards as well as upwards, and increases indefinitely the already almost inconceivable vastness of the time necessary for these processes; and yet this is but the modern period, and in reference to the preceding eras of geology, may be said to be but of yesterday.

In reference to this point, Mr. Smith, of Jordan Hill, has made the following remarks:

"At an elevation of about forty feet, there has been observed upon many parts of our coasts a series of raised beaches and terraces, which, by their magnitude, indicate the prodigious length of time at which the sea-level must have been stationary at this height; and if we may judge of its duration by the relative size of the ancient terraces with those now forming, it must have exceeded the recent period, of which 2,000 years is but a part by an immense amount. But this is but one of the epochs in the history of this formation. Between the great terrace and the sea, several subordinate ones and beaches have been observed, each of them marking long continued periods of repose; whilst a sudden deepening, two or three fathoms below low water-mark, is probably caused by another line of terraces, now covered by the sea." The following table of the classification of the different formations of this, the pleistocene or glacial period of geology, is constructed from Mr. Smith's papers, and may help us to form an idea, or rather to lose ourselves in the attempt to form an idea of the extent of time necessary for its production.

1. Elevated marine beds. Ancient beaches.

2. Submarine forests.

3. Alluvial beds, most likely marine, but affording as yet no organic remains.

4. Upper Diluvium or Till. The most recent deposit of the Till. Has yielded bones of the fossil elephant, and water worn shells. "Cyprina Islandica," "A balanus," &c.

5. Marine beds in the Till, affording shells. Occurs at Airdrie 500 feet above the sea level. A bed of "Tellina proxima." In site under No. 4, and above No. 6.

6. Lower Diluvium, Till, or Boulder Clay.

7. Stratified Alluvium, consisting of sands, gravels, and clays,

without organic remains. Resting in the Clyde district, immediately upon the upper members of the carboniferous system.

I have divided the Diluvium or Till into two members, as certain recent discoveries, lately laid by Mr. Smith before the Geological Society, have shown it to have been deposited at two periods, with quiet waters intervening; and this also adds indefinitely to the already very extended length of time required for the development of these beds.

Perhaps we will not be far wrong if we conclude that there was once a time when the valley of the Clyde was an arm of the sea, and that its waters eddied around the various eminences which mark the physical geography of Glasgow. Far prior this must have been to the era when the receding waters left the lower reaches of the river, winding through low swampy plains, the broader lagoons and channels of which floated the canoe fleet of the aborigines, afterwards to be embedded on their reedy banks. Equally distant on the other hand must it have been from those still earlier days, when waters, whose bounds were full 500 feet higher than the present margin of the sea, supported the arctic "Tellina proxima," whose remains the Airdrie clays have yielded to modern researches.

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What of the still more ancient epochs, when the luxuriant vegetation of the coal measures was waving on all the central strath of Scotland, from Forth to Clyde, hemmed in on either side by the dark red rocks of the old red sandstone, which had arisen at a still more remote date from the profound depths of ocean. And when those rugged crags of conglomerate, with their water-worn boulders, were strewed at the bottom of ocean, there was an older land. In the words of Playfair, Revolutions still more remote appear in the distance of this extraordinary perspective. The mind seems to grow giddy with looking so far into the abyss of time; we become sensible how much farther reason may sometimes go than imagination can venture to follow." I feel constrained to repeat a remark which I have ventured before to make, that the indefiniteness of time, which geology requires, is only equalled by the indefiniteness of space which astronomy demands; and the twain only surpassed by the infinity of Him who fills them both with the evidence of His presence and His perfections.

EXTRAORDINARY MEETING.

ROYAL INSTITUTION.-March 4, 1854.

JOSEPH DICKINSON, M.D., F.L.S., &c., PRESIDENT, in the Chair.

The SECRETARY read letters from the Rev. J. S. Howson and Mr. J. HARTNUP, expressing their inability to attend the Meeting, but approving of the principle of Union.

Upon the motion of Mr. J. BOULT, the "Report of the Delegates from the four Learned Societies of Liverpool, which publish Transactions, on the subject of Union," was considered as read to the Meeting. The SECRETARY read the following communication from the Conncil, namely, "Provided the title Literary and Philosophical Society be retained, a union of the Learned Societies is desirable."

Moved by Dr. D. P. THOMSON, and seconded by Dr. W. IHNE : "That the recommendation of the Council be adopted."

Amendment moved by Mr. E. HEATH, seconded by Mr. J. A. PICTON, and carried:

"That the words Provided the title of Literary and Philosophical Society be retained' be left out."

It was moved by Mr. ALFRED HIGGINSON, "That the Report be referred back to the Delegates for further consideration." This motion not having been seconded fell to the ground.

Moved by Mr. EDWARD HIGGIN, seconded by the Rev. H. HAMPTON, and carried:

"That the Report be adopted, with the exception of the clause, that the Committee think it premature to suggest a name for the enlarged Society; but they strongly recommend the avoidance of all the names of the uniting societies'—which is reserved for further consideration."

Moved by the Rev. Dr. HUME, seconded by Mr. J. FORSHAW, and unanimously carried:

"That the thanks of the Society be given to the Delegates; also to Mr. BRAKELL, for his liberality in printing gratuitously 1,000 copies of the Report of the Delegates."