Proceedings. 



97 



tournaments, he was entirely free from partisanship, and 

 however keenly he would follow the merits of the contro- 

 versy, he never took part in the strife. The speaker 

 gratefully acknowledged how much his quiet influence had 

 controlled the direction and spirit of his own studies, and 

 none of his pupils would more sincerely mourn his death. 

 Dr. Boswell was born in Edinburgh on the ist December, 

 1822, and died at his family estate, Balmuto, Fifeshire, on 

 the 29th January, 1888. He lectured on botany for many 

 years to the students of the Charing Cross School of 

 Medicine, and afterwards at Westminster Hospital. His 

 honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by the 

 University of St. Andrews. 



Mr. Thomas Kay communicated a " Note on an erratic 

 block observed during excavations for a sewer in Oxford 

 Street, Manchester," by Percy F. Kendall, Assistant 

 Lecturer on Geology in the Owens College, Manchester. 



Mr. Kendall said that the boulder was met with in 

 the course of the excavation for a new sewer, and his 

 attention was drawn to it by Mr. Jones, who was superv^ising 

 the work on behalf of the Corporation, and to whom the 

 geologists of the district were greatly indebted, as it was 

 through his instrumentality that nearly all large boulders 

 placed in our public Parks have been secured. The stone 

 was found embedded in the base of the boulder clay, just 

 at the junction with an underlying bed of gravel. Its 

 extreme dimensions were about 9ft. 6in. x 7ft. 4in. x 5ft. loin. 

 Such large boulders offered much more striking evidence of 

 ice-transport than those of small size, as we know of no 

 other natural agent competent to effect their removal to 

 great distances from the parent rock. An inspection of the 

 rock showed that it was identical in character with the most 

 abundant rock among the smaller boulders of the neigh- 

 bourhood, viz. : a volcanic rock of the andesitic type. As 

 to the place of origin of the rock — he had found among 



