VOL. XVIII. (2) GLACIAL BOULDERS, BOURNVILLE 163 



THE GLACIAL BOULDERS AT BOURNVILLE, 

 BIRMINGHAM 



BY 



Prof. CHARLES LAPWORTH, LLD.. M.Sc, P.R.S. 



{Read May 20th, 1913) 



I was exceedingly pleased a few days ago to receive a 

 kind invitation from my friend and former pupil, Mr Louis 

 Barrow, to come over to BoumviUe on the present occasion 

 and join him in the very hearty welcome which the firm of 

 Messrs Cadbury Bros, and Mr Barrow himself offer to the 

 members of the Cotteswold NaturaUsts' Field Club. 



I was the more pleased to accept the invitation because 

 the boulders which you have come to see were discovered on 

 the estate of Messrs Cadbury, who have always keenly in- 

 terested themselves in the advancement of the people at large ; 

 also I have myself for nearly half a lifetime been interested 

 in. everything that tends to progress in geological discovery, 

 and that prompts any observer to hearty geological work. 



Of course geologists are pleased that those who are 

 unfamiliar with the science take occasionally some Httle 

 interest in their work. But as a rule the ordinary pubUc gives 

 a hearty welcome to advances in geological knowledge, but 

 a very tardy welcome to advances in geological theory. 



What the outsider rarely seems to grasp is that geo- 

 logical theories are simply those always-improving mental 

 explanations which appear to the geologist at each successive 

 stage of his advance best to agree with the facts known to 

 him at the time, and serve as tools to aid him in his future 

 work. Whenever an old explanation no longer accommo- 

 dates itself to the additional facts, which the geologist has 



