Evolution (Biology); Glacial epoch; Human beings -- Origin; Human evolution
On a review of the whole evidence, geological and archaeological,
afforded by the Scottish coast-line, we may conclude that the last
upheaval of 25 feet took place not only since the first human population
settled in the island; but long after metallic implements had come into
use, and there seems even a strong presumption in favour of the opinion
that the date of the elevation may have been subsequent to the Roman
occupation.
But the 25 feet rise is only the last stage of a long antecedent process
of elevation, for examples of Recent marine shells have been observed 40
feet and upwards above the sea in Ayrshire. At one of these localities,
Mr. Smith of Jordanhill informs me that a rude ornament made of cannel
coal has been found on the coast in the parish of Dundonald, lying 50
feet above the sea-level, on the surface of the boulder-clay or till,
and covered with gravel containing marine shells. If we suppose the
upward movement to have been uniform in central Scotland before and
after the Roman era, and assume that as 25 feet indicate seventeen
centuries, so 50 feet imply a lapse of twice that number, or 3400
years, we should then carry back the date of the ornament in question
to fifteen centuries before our era, or to the days of Pharaoh, and the
period usually assigned to the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. [8]
But all such estimates must be considered, in the present state of
science, as tentative and conjectural, since the rate of movement of the
land may not have been uniform, and its direction not always upwards,
and there may have been long stationary periods, one of which of more
than usual duration seems indicated by the 50-foot raised beach, which
has been traced for vast distances along the western coast of Scotland.
COAST OF CORNWALL.
Sir H. De la Beche has adduced several proofs of changes of level,
in the course of the human period, in his "Report on the Geology of
Cornwall and Devon," 1839. He mentions (page 406) that several human
skulls and works of art, buried in an estuary deposit, were found in
mining gravel for tin at Pentuan, near St. Austell, the skulls lying at
the depth of 40 feet from the surface, and others at Carnon at the depth
of 53 feet. The overlying strata were marine, containing sea-shells
of living species, and bones of whales, besides the remains of several
living species of mammalia.
Other examples of works of art, such as stone hatchets, canoes,
and ships, buried in ancient river-beds in England, and in peat and
shell-marl, I have mentioned in my work before cited.
SWEDEN AND NORWAY.
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