32 Mr. W. Kemp's Observations on the latest 



matter would be carried to a greater or less distance, accord- 

 ing to its specific gravity ; so while the rocky fragments were 

 being deposited upon the flanks of the adjacent heights, the 

 finer sedimentary ingredients borne along from the more di- 

 stant peaks would gradually subside and be deposited along 

 with the grosser fragments ; and in this manner would the 

 coarse and fine become indiscriminately mixed, as we find 

 them. As the hills arose and their higher summits had be- 

 come elevated above the action of the sweeping water, the cur- 

 rents would take different directions from their former onward 

 course, removing a part of the earlier wreck, which, together 

 with the spoil still derived from the hills, would be laid over 

 the more distant parts of the former deposit, containing many 

 boulders more rounded and smoothed by attrition. At last, 

 when the land became so far elevated that only partial currents 

 swept through the lower straits, there would in many places 

 be a still further remodeling, for the finer particles would be 

 swept into sheltered localities according to circumstances, 

 while the fragmentary debris would be rolled along and thrown 

 up in banks of gravel. 



From the same denuding and sweeping cause do we account 

 for the greater part of those large boulders, which are so 

 plentifully scattered over the surface along the declivities to 

 the east of the eminences, where in many moorish districts 

 they lie yet unremoved. East from the village of Fans they 

 may be counted in thousands ; and so thick do they lie upon 

 the surface, that a person may almost walk along continuously 

 from one to another. They are of all sizes, from a few pounds 

 to several tons in weight ; the greater part are rather well- 

 rounded, but that does not argue against the above theory, as 

 there can be little doubt that many of them would be well 

 smoothed over upon the one end before they were torn from 

 the living rock, and upon examination many of them appear 

 to have been so. Fans occupies a rather elevated situation, 

 being built upon a broad flat knoll of hard crystalline green- 

 stone. A quarry at the west end of the village opens up a 

 fine view of the rock, which is of a beautiful columnar struc- 

 ture. The columns are about 30 inches in diameter, standing 

 nearly perpendicular, and although closely joined can be easily 

 separated, which shows that its denudation would be much 

 more easily accomplished than that of a rock of a more mass- 

 ive structure ; and hence the vast number of these blocks 

 radiating towards the east of that place. A question may 

 arise, how comes it that those boulders are so thickly scattered 

 over the surface — not imbedded in the clay, but lying upon it ? 

 That question has already been partly answered. As the rock 



