of bringing this exotic to perfection in Ireland. When in due time, after he had planted the first potatoes, the stalks grew up, and he perceived upon the stem a green apple, he thought that was the fruit, which he had no idea of being concealed under the earth. He caused some of these apples to be boiled, but finding them nauseous to the taste, he concluded that he had lost his labour, and for some time thought no more of potatoes. However, having some time after given directions that the ground should be dug up or ploughed, to his very great surprise he found a plentiful crop of fruit which proved most grateful to the taste. They soon got into general use, and became the principal food of the Irish peasantry. From Ireland they spread into England, where it has generally and erroneously been believed that potatoes were natives of Ireland."

No. VI.

The seventh refinery at Greenock, occupied by Crawhalls & Company, the main building of which was eight stories in height, re-built in the summer of 1862 in the most substantial and improved manner, being entirely of stone, was completely destroyed by fire on the night of the 22nd March, 1864. This sugarhouse was destroyed by fire exactly two years ago, and the new works were not more than twelve months in operation.-Glasgow Herald, 24th March, 1864.

TRANSACTIONS OF THE GLASGOW ARCHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

NO. XXVI.

AN INVESTIGATION OF THE GEOLOGICAL QUESTION BEARING ON THE ANTIQUITY OF THE CANOES FOUND ON THE BANKS OF

THE CLYDE.

BY

DR. SCOULAR.

[Read at a Meeting of the Society held at Glasgow on 2nd May, 1864.]

THE history of canoes found on the banks of the Clyde has been so fully detailed by Mr. Buchanan that it is unnecessary in the present communication to repeat what he has stated. The object of the present Paper is rather to investigate the geological question in so far as it bears on their antiquity, and to illustrate an interesting archæological investigation by the aid of natural history. These canoes, as is well known, have been found at various distances from the river banks, and also at different elevations above the present limits of the highest tides. The first circumstance which attracts attention is that all of them were found at a depth of about twenty feet from the surface, in the channel of the river; but at the same time they are at very different elevations when we refer to the present level of the waters at the highest tides. In those which have been found at Springfield and Clydeheugh, we must infer that they were foundered at a period when the sea reached the same level as at present. The depth at which they are found is that of the present channel of the river, and cresting waves were quite competent to have carried down all the beds of sand and gravel by which they were covered; here then we may therefore infer that no geological change of any importance has taken place in this part of the valley of the Clyde. Besides the canoes we have mentioned there are others which indicate geological changes, that is changes in the relative position of the sea and land from elevation. Thus, in the case of the canoes found near London Street and the Tontine, although they were buried at the same depth from the surface, they are more than twenty feet above tide mark, or in other words, what was once the channel of the river has been elevated by that amount, and consequently these last-mentioned canoes must be of a greater antiquity than these found at the lower levels of Springfield and Clydeheugh. The history of canoes found at such elevations as

Drygate would carry us back to a much higher antiquity; but, unfortunately, beyond the undoubted fact of canoes having been found in those places we have scarcely any farther information. If they were found embedded under transported sand and clay, this would point to a very great antiquity; but it is possible the aborigines may have left them in such places for concealment and security. The result, however, of what we have on undoubted evidence, is that no elevation of the land amounting to more than twenty feet has taken place since the estuary of the Clyde was navigated by these ancient canoes.

We may now enquire if, in addition to the proofs of elevation afforded by the canoes, we have any other and independent evidence derived from purely geological sources, and here we find the investigation of the recent changes which have taken place in the vicinity of Glasgow affords very curious results. If we remove the loose soil and glacial beds we find that the solid strata on which Glasgow is situated are what is called the carboniferous rocks, consisting of sand, shale, and coal, which are intersected and disturbed by trap dikes. At a period anterior to the deposition of the glacial beds and loose sand we find that the strata on which our city is built were submerged and exposed to a great amount of denudation, by which a vast quantity of the stratified rocks have been borne down and transported to the sea. When the sea bears away the rocky stones, the rapidity of its action is determined by the hardness and tenacity of the rocks. Thus when sandstone is intersected by lines of trap it is often worn away with more rapidity than the harder trap which remains at the Island of Cumbrae in the form of walls, proving at the same time the power of denudation and also the elevation of the land. Of this we have a very instructive but not very obvious example in the site on which Glasgow is built. While digging for the purpose of sewerage in various places in the streets, the very curious fact has been remarked that trap dykes in. tersect the beds of sand which have been deposited by the river.

Part of Glasgow is traversed by two dykes of this kind; one of them cuts across the middle of Virginia Street, the other has been traced from the west end of College Street, whence it runs to Ingram Strect, and has been seen in Miller Street. In all this course the dyke intersects the alluvial river deposit, and the explanation of this strange position of a trap dyke involves a curious geological problem, having an important bearing in the history of the canoes. To account for these dykes we have to assume a gradual subsidence of the land

on which Glasgow is situated, during which the carboniferous strata were worn away by the action of the sea until the land as high as College Street and the site of the University was submerged. This may have taken place during the glacial epoch, which also of itself involves a subsidence. When the subsidence had reached its term the process was inverted and an elevation took place during which the estuary of the Clyde was formed and gradually silted up, so as to produce the alluvial lands on both sides of the river. It was towards the conclusion of this period and long after the glacial formations had been brought to a close that the canoe period is to be dated. As to the canoe period itself it again may, in a geological point of view, be divided into two, the more ancient before the period of elevation had ceased, and the more modern when the present equilibrium was attained.

If such is the theory of the geological relations of the canoes, we have to enquire what were the conditions of the organic world at that period? We may infer that the climate was not very different from what it is at present. As the canoes were constructed from oak we may infer that a vegetation similar to the present characterised the country. With regard to the animal kingdom the facts are more interesting, for while no change has taken place as to the land or fresh water mollusca, there was some difference with respect to mammiferous animals. In this respect I have to state the fact which has not hitherto been noticed, that the builders of the canoes were contemporary with two animals of which we have no historical record. This rests upon the fact that the remains of the reindeer and Bos primigenius have been found in the Clyde and brought up by the dredge near White Inch, and the specimens are still to be seen in the Andersonian Museum. Although the reindeer still abounds in the north of Europe, it is an interesting fact to know that they were coeval with man when the Clyde was navigated by the canoes of the early inhabitants of our country.

From these brief remarks we may infer that since man inhabited the country a change of level has taken place in the vicinity of Glasgow; that he was the companion of the reindeer, which he could hunt with no other implements than those of stone or bone, and in a state of barbarism similar to that of the Fins, so emphatically described by Tacitus; and further, that they proceeded from the Aryan, who seem from the earliest ages of their history to have been acquainted with the use of metals.