progress of the more recent geological changes on the earth's surface. Such reflections are not suggested for the first time in our own day, nor will a shallow part satisfy those who have gone thus far. "Nature hath furnished one part of the earth, and man another. The treasures of time lie high, in urns, coins, and monuments, scarce below the roots of some vegetables. Time hath endless rarities, and shows of all varieties, which reveals old things in heaven, makes new discoveries in earth, and even earth itself a discovery. That great antiquity, America, lay buried for thousands of years, and a large part of the earth is still in the urn unto us."[50] Some of these historic phenomena which are indicated above required only time to produce them. The beds of sand and loam at Springfield, in which the ancient fleets of the Clyde have lain entombed for ages, are such as the slow depositions of winter floods will for the most part account for, if the chronologist can only spare for them the requisite centuries. Others seem to point to geological changes within the historic era, of a more remarkable and extensive character. These it is not our province to explain. Whether the geologist find it most consistent with the established laws of his science to assume the standing of the whole ocean at higher levels within so recent a period, or adopt the more probable theory of local upheaval and denudation to account for these phenomena, this at least must be conceded, that the lapse of many ages is required for the changes which they indicate, and we can hardly err in inferring that civilisation had advanced but a little way on the plain of Nimroud, or the banks of the Nile, when the tiny fleets of the Clyde were navigating its estuary, and the hardy fishermen were following the whale in the winding creeks of the Forth. FOOTNOTES: [30] Pennant's Tour, vol. ii. p. 107. [31] Sinclair's Stat. Acc. vol. i. p. 160. [32] New Stat. Acc. vol. iv. Wigtonshire, p. 179. [33] Sinclair's Stat. Acc. vol. viii. p. 305. New Stat. Acc. vol. iv., Kirkcudbrightshire, p. 155. [34] Archæologia Scotica, vol. iv. p. 299. [35] Sinclair's Stat. Acc. vol. xv. p. 68. [36] Beauties of Scotland, vol. iii. p. 419. [37] Bibliotheca Topog. Britan., No. II. Part III. p. 242. [38] Wernerian Trans. vol. iv. p. 58. [39] Wernerian Trans. vol. v. p. 44. [40] Brit. Fossil Mammals, p. 542. [41] _Vide_ Wern. Trans. vol. iii. p. 125, for the characteristic remains included in the recent alluvial formation of the valley of the Forth. [42] For access to this interesting relic, as well as for much other valuable information, I am indebted to John Buchanan, Esq., of Glasgow. [43] Chapman's Picture of Glasgow, 1818, p. 152. [44] Chambers's Ancient Sea Margins, pp. 203-209. [45] MS. Letters of J. Buchanan, Esq. [46] New Statist. Acc. vol. vi. p. 601. [47] New Statistical Account, vol. xii. p. 1059.