Bheither hills at exactly the same height above the sea, about midway between two other hills whose names are given, 3 or 4 miles to the N.N.W.

Assuming that the boulder came from that point, it must have crossed two valleys, each of which is less than 700 feet above the sea. How it could have crossed these, except on floating ice, it is difficult to see.

(5.) There is another boulder in the same district of Schistose Breccia at a height of 2235 feet. The parent rock was found at some distance to the N.N.W. "This boulder (the Professor says) in like manner must have been carried across the deep valley of the Durer to have reached its present position."

(6.) A very interesting account is given of boulders in the neighbourhood of Glencoe. Being much rounded, they suggest a long transport, and were "of a peculiar granite," somewhat like "the well-known Ardshiel granite," only "whiter and coarser grained."

Being "altogether different from the rocks of the hill on which they were first noticed, consisting of a 'schistose breccia,' the Professor resolved to seek for the parent rock."

Thinking, from his knowledge of the rocks to the eastward, that they were not likely to have come from that quarter, he set out on a hunt in a westerly direction. On reaching the Aonach-Eagach range of hills, he recognised the same boulders on them, "fewer in number, but markedly larger in size."

He followed them up to the first summit of the hill, which was 2938 feet; and, proceeding still further west to a hill called Meall Dearg, he found the same boulders first at 3090 feet and eventually "almost up to the summit of the western peak at 3118 feet."

The Professor says that "their position here was most peculiar,they lay upon a ridge not many times wider than their own bulk, and only on the eastern slopes of that ridge."

Proceeding still farther west to other hills (which are named in his notes) at from 2400 to 3200 feet, the Professor did not find either boulders, "or rock, of the same description;" but on proceeding to the next hills, of somewhat greater height, about 6 or 7 miles to the west, he found at two spots, the kind of rock he was in quest of. He however adds, that "though the rocks at these two spots were almost identical in mineral composition with that of the 4 F

VOL. X.

boulders, I am not satisfied that they supplied the boulders,-for the spots where those rocks occur, are only from 1500 to 2300 feet above the sea,-whereas the boulders on some parts of the AonachEagach, to the eastward, were at a height of 3100 feet above the

sea.

"An attempt has been made by some geologists to explain, how boulders may be transported to positions above the level of the parent rocks; and, if that theory be correct, it may help to overcome this difficulty."

"But it is a fact of considerable importance, bearing on any theory of transport, that these boulders on Aonach-Eagach, occupy positions much higher in level than any of the hills in a very wide extent of country, so that it is hardly possible to adopt for them the explanation of any local glacier."

"I have adverted" (says the Professor) "to the peculiar position of these boulders on Meall Dearg, where, at a height of 3100 feet, they lay upon a ridge not many times wider than their own bulk, or rather on the sides of that ridge facing the E. or N.E. I am not able at present to offer any explanations of this feature. I would like again to study the position of these boulders. They must have been brought by ice, which may have come from the N. W. and stuck there among the high peaks, till it melted and allowed the boulders to subside on or near the top of the ridge. My explorations about Glen Creran, led to the supposition of a flow of ice through Glen Tarbert on the N.W. side of the Linnhe Loch. This might also possibly account for the boulders on Aonach-Eagach; but, in that case, where could the parent rocks be?"

This query by the Professor, Where could the parent rocks of these boulders be? he leaves unanswered; and, no doubt, it is a query more easily asked than answered. It would, therefore, be presumption in me even to suggest an answer. But the query reminds me that, two years ago, I sent specimens of the Loch Creran boulders to Professor Judd of London, an eminent geologist well acquainted with the rocks of the West Highlands, to ask him, whether he knew of rocks anywhere like those of the boulders, and he gave a decided opinion that rocks of exactly the same kind existed in Mull and Ardnamurchan. Now, these places are to the west of the boulders referred to by Professor Heddle, and

it is from the west that he thinks they came. Moreover, in Mull, the hill of Benmore is 3180 feet above the sea, whilst in Ardnamurchan there are hills nearly that height. It strikes me, therefore, that it would be very desirable, if Professor Heddle could, in the course of this summer, visit Mull and Ardnamurchan to see whether he agrees with Professor Judd's surmise on this subject.

III. Convener's Notes.

The points brought out in these, are very unimportant, compared with those of Professor Heddle and Messrs Jolly and Wallace of Inverness.

1. The boulders in Cantyre I found had, on the south and east coast, come apparently from some point due north; those on the west coast, from points varying between N.W. and N.N.W.

2. In Arran, the boulders on the east coast, which were all that I examined, seem to have moved in a direction from about due north.

3. In the Cumbrae islands, they seemed also to have come from due north.

4. In Loch Long and the Gairloch, the boulders showed transport from points varying between N. N. W. and N. by E., which happens also to be about the axial line of the valleys in which the boulders lie.

5. In the hills to the north of Loch Fyne, I was rather surprised to see the smoothed rocks facing N. and N.E., and the boulders lying with their longer axis in much the same direction.

6. When I reached Loch Awe, I found the boulders among the hills, at from 900 to 1000 feet above the sea, indicating in like manner transport from the N.N.E.

This deviation, at several places in the interior of the country, from the N.W. direction which is so prevalent elsewhere, at first rather surprised me; but it probably does not on principle differ materially from the fact, that occasionally on the same rock, or on the same boulder, there are separate sets of striæ. If these striæ are produced by currents which run first in one direction and thereafter in another, a similar explanation might apply to the variations of direction over a large district of country.

For example, Professor Heddle, as we have seen, takes notice of

such variation in Uist, and on a larger scale among the hills at Glen Creran; and the boulders in Nairn and Morayshire have evidently been brought by currents which came from different points.

If in the North of Scotland, the normal direction of the current was to the S.E., it is probable that the deep trench of the Great Caledonian Valley running about E. by N, with a range of hills on each side 2000 feet high, would there cause a deviation in the direction of the current. As the sea subsided from one level to another, the currents would change in directions.

Examples were seen by me last year in the Lewis, of a change even on the same hill. At the top, the direction was as usual N. W., near the bottom, it was from due W. or W.S.W.

Among the hills south of Loch Awe, I found a large boulder perched on a peak of rock in a remarkably precarious position. It is shown on the diagram. By a glacier it certainly could not have been brought, there being neither hills nor valleys to form a glacier. If it came by floating ice, the ice might be arrested by the peak, and when it melted, the block which the ice carried, might remain. 7. The largest boulder which I have yet seen, was found by me on the west coast of Argyle, in Loch Killasport. Calculating by its cubical contents, it weighed about 2770 tons. This boulder, and many others of large size, were on the sea shore, and half a mile at least from any sea cliff, old or recent. I felt convinced from their situation, and also from the direction of their longer axis, that they had all come across the sea from the N.W.

8. A short time ago, my attention was called to a boulder, 9 × 8 × 6 feet, in Roxburghshire, weighing about 16 tons. On examining it, I found that it was of exactly the same rock as that which composes the Penielheugh, the hill on which the Waterloo Pillar stands. It is about a mile to the east of the hill, and has evidently been floated to its present position by ice. The hill also presents other facts of no small interest bearing on the transport of boulders. The west side of the hill has been swept bare, so that the trap rocks stand out like the bones of a skeleton with the skin and flesh off, whilst the east side of the hill is covered by soft Old Red Sandstone, as well as by sand and gravel. This place affords undoubted evidence of sea with floating ice, which stripped the hill and carried fragments to the eastward.

Whilst the view I take in regard to the transport of boulders, and the striation of rock surfaces in Scotland is, that these phenomena were in most instances due to ice in a sea, which reached to our highest mountain tops, I admit that there are traces also of land ice in the form of local glaciers. In last year's Report I pointed out what appeared to me clear evidence of glacier action in Glencoe; and Professor Heddle also recognised glacier action on the west coast near Loch Torridon. But my idea is, that these glaciers must be referred to a period antecedent to the submergence of the land, for we find those traces of glaciers in many places covered over by thick beds of gravel, sand, and clay which could only have been deposited by the sea.

DAVID MILNE HOME, Convener.

On 21st May 1880, at a meeting of the Council of the Society, the Committee was reappointed, with the addition of General Bayley and Professor Duns, D.D.

5. On Two Masks and a Skull from Islands near New Guinea. By Professor Turner.

These specimens have recently been presented to the Anatomical Museum of the University, by J. Wharton Cox, Esq., who had received them from his father, Dr Cox of Sydney, the well-known Australian naturalist.

The masks had been procured by Dr Cox from missionaries, and were either from the island of New Ireland or New Britain, in proximity to the north coast of New Guinea. They were both formed of the frontal and facial bones, on which a face had been modelled in a composition, formed of a mixture of a resinous substance with earth or clay. This artificial face had then been painted with red, black, and white pigments. The larger mask was hollowed out behind, by the removal of the sphenoid and ethmoid bones, so that it could be adapted to the face of a wearer, and a bar of wood was fastened transversely across the hollow, which the wearer had evidently used for holding the mask between his teeth; as the mask had both the eyelids and lips