27 
It is not an ‘‘ erratic boulder” at all, but merely a weathered block 
Tt is not ‘‘ yellow Pennant sandstone.” 
It does not ‘‘ rest upon carboniferous limestone.” 
It was not ‘‘ lifted into its place by glacial action.” 
5. Thereis ‘‘a rock, of which it has formed a part, in the vicinity of 
Symond’s Yat.” 
Pete 
And with regard to the statement, that “the whole valley of the Wye 
affords evidence of glacial action,” I am not aware of any one piece of evidence yet 
found in the whole course of the Wye valley, which amounts to actual proof of 
glacial action,—such as that which is seen round Snowdon, to say nothing of the 
Lake district of Scotland. But even if this were an erratic boulder of Pennant 
sandstone, and if there were satisfactory evidence of glacial action in the Wye 
valley, it is not easy to see howice could have brought it from the Brisiol or South 
Wales coal-field, across the watershed of the Severn or the Usk valley, to the spot 
where it now lies, I may add that I much wonder Dr. Wright was not startled at 
his own conclusion, which, if true, would involve the extraordinary circumstance 
of a piece of local sandstone ‘being transported by natural agency from one coal- 
field, to which it is peculiar, to another from which it is absent. 
With the able assistance of Mr. F. D. Long, of the Cotswold Field Club, 
I have ascertained the following facts respecting this well-known stone, and he is 
able to corroborate the truth of every one of them. 
The stone itself is indubitably mill-stone grit, resting on the mill-stone grit 
formation. The hill above the pathway on which it lies, and the pathway itself, 
form part of the same formation, which extends to the edge of the steep slope to 
the river, and descends it for a short distance. The geologists of the ordnance 
survey have failed to see not only this, but also the more obvious fact that the 
overlying rock, as you go on to the promontory of Symond’s Yat, is of the same 
formation ; and that, when you ascend the furthest part of the promontory, the 
surface rock is found to be mountain limestone, whereas in the survey maps the 
whole is marked as carboniferous shale. Still further the road up to the Yat, 
when it reaches the top of the hill, passes through a cutting in the rock; that 
portion on the left-hand is mill-stone grit ; that on the right-hand is for a short 
distance limestone, which soon passes into mill-stone grit ; at the actual junction 
it is very interesting to trace the confused way in which the two formations, so 
distinct in character, are mingled together, a mass of the limestone occasionally 
overlying the mill-stone grit. The cause of this is apparently due to the fact that 
the carboniferous limestone which forms the mass of the promontory of the Yat 
has been tilted up, and dips at a considerable angle (as shown in the the survey) 
towards the great limestone escarpment (of which it forms a part) which escarp- 
ment extends down and overhangs the river for a considerable distance, its 
bedding being perfectly horizontal ; the point at which the bedding of the strata 
is thus broken and inclined is also the point of junction of the mill-stone grit, and 
hence probably the crumpled and contorted appearance observable at this spot. 
