Page:Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man.djvu/270

252 named, the occurrence of the mammoth and reindeer in the Scotch boulder-clay, as both these quadrupeds are known to have been contemporary with man, favours the idea which I have already expressed, that the close of the glacial period in the Grampians may have coincided in time with the existence of man in those parts of Europe where the climate was less severe, as, for example, in the basins of the Thames, Somme, and Seine, in which the bones of many extinct mammalia are associated with flint implements of the antique type.

Perhaps no portion of the superficial drift of Scotland can lay claim to so modern an origin on the score of the freshness of its aspect, as that which forms what are called the Parallel Roads of Glen Roy. If they do not belong to the recent epoch, they are at least posterior in date to the present outline of mountain and glen, and to the time when every one of the smaller burns ran in their present channels, though some of them have since been slightly deepened. The perfect horizontally, moreover, of the roads, one of which is continuous for about twenty miles from east to west, and twelve miles from north to south, shows that since the era of their formation no change has taken place in the relative levels of different parts of the district.

Glen Roy is situated in the Western Highlands, about ten miles north of Fort William, near the western end of the great glen of Scotland, or Caledonian Canal, and near the foot of the highest of the Grampians, Ben Nevis. (See map, p. 254.) Throughout nearly its whole length, a distance of more than ten miles, three parallel roads or shelves are traced along the steep sides of the mountains, as represented in the annexed view, Plate II., by the late Sir T. LanderLauder [sic] Dick, each maintaining a perfect horizontally, and continuing at exactly the