440 



NA TURE 



{Sept. 4, 1879 



had peculiar temptations. I venture to think that the greatest 

 scientific problems of the future wUl find their solution in this 

 Border Land, and even beyond ; here, it seems to me, lie.Ulti- 

 mate Realities, subtle, far-reaching, wonderful. 



" Yet all these were, when no Man did them know, 

 Yet have from wi?;est Ages hidden beene ; 

 And later Times thinges mor« unknowne shall show. 

 Why then should witlesse Man so much misweene, 

 That nothing is, but that which he hath seene ! " 



THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION 



GENERAL satisfaction is expressed with the Sheffield 

 meeting. The people of the town and district did 

 their best, amid many difficulties, to give the members 

 of the Association a hearty reception, and they suc- 

 ceeded. The excursions on Thursday were well attended, 

 and those who took part in them seem to have enjoyed 

 themselves. At the meeting of the General Committee, 

 Swansea was selected as next year's place of meeting, 

 with Prof. A. R. Ramsay as president ; the date of meeting 

 is August 25. A letter was read from the Archbishop 

 of York, warmly urging upon the Association to meet in 

 the archiepiscopal City in 1881, when, for some unac- 

 countable reason, the jubilee is to be celebrated, as we 

 have already said, in the fifty-first year of the Association's 

 existence. As the result of the important discussion in 

 Section F on science teaching in schools, a cornmittee 

 was appointed for the purpose of reporting, in addition to 

 other matters, whether it is important that her Majesty's 

 inspectors of elementary schools should be appointed 

 with reference to their ability for examining on scientific 

 specific subjects of the code, the committee to consist of 

 Mr. Mundella, M.P., Mr. Shaw, Mr. Bourne, Mr. Jas. 

 Haywood, Mr. Wilkinson, and Dr. J. H. Gladstone. 



REPORTS 



Report of the Committee on Erratic Blocks, presented by the 

 Rev. H. W. Crosskey, F.G.S. (Abstract.) 



Several contributions of interest and importance have been 

 received respecting the position and distribution of erratic 

 blocks. 



A granite boulder 3X2-5X2 feet has been found by Mr. 

 Hall, in the village of Bickington, parish of Fremington. There 

 is no similar rock nearer than Lundy Island, twenty-five miles 

 west-north-west from the boulder and Dartmoor, twenty five 

 miles south by east. Its height above the sea is 80 feet. 



Among the most remarkable erratic blocks yet described in 

 the midland district, are those reported upon Frankley Hill, at 

 a height of 650 feet above the sea. They were examined by the 

 writer in company with Prof. T. G. Bonney, and the following 

 is a summary of the observations made : — 



A section of drift beds is exposed in a cutting of the new 

 Hales Owen Railway passing through Frankley Hill. The 

 section is as follows : — Permian clay, sand of clayey texture, 

 yellovish sand, greyish sandy clay with brinter pebbly clay, 

 somewhat sandy. The heights of the clays and sane s are very 

 irregu'ar throughout the section which is in itself about 60 feet 

 in depth. 



Fragments of permian f-andstone (which is exposed in a part 

 of the section) are scattered through the sands and clays, but 

 erratic blocks are rare. Indeed, one only — a greenstone — was 

 noticed in the cutting itself, although others doubtless occur. 



No part of this section can be called a "boulder clay" — if by 

 " boulder clay " be meant either a clay formed beneath land ice, 

 or a clay carried away by an iceberg and deposited on the sea- 

 bottom, as the berg melted or stranded. 



The various sands and gravels have all the appearance of 

 being a " wash " from older beds, cfTected during the depression 

 and subsequent upheaval of the present land surface. They are 

 neither compactly crowded with erratics, nor are fragments of 

 local rocks heaped irregularly together, and grooved and striated. 

 The way in which the pieces of native rock are scattered through 

 the beds, does not indicate any other force than that which 

 would be exerted by the ordinary " wash" of the waters during 

 the movements just mentioned. 



The presence of a few erratics shows that the 'ivash must have 

 taken place beneath the waters of a glacial sea, over which ice- 

 bergs floated. 



These beds appear to have been formed in the earher rather 

 than the later part of the glacial epoch. In a field on the sum- 

 mit of the section a large number of erratics are to be seen which 

 have been taken from a recent surface-drain. Twenty of these 

 boulders are felsite, two are basalt, one is a piece of vein- quartz, 

 and one is a Welsh diabase. They constitute a group of aUied 

 rocks, evidently from one district. Probably they belong to the 

 great Arenig dispersion. Two of the felsites close to the group 

 are of considerable size, the larger being about 6X4X2 feet. 

 Similar blocks may be traced to the summit of the hill. One 

 felsite boulder opposite the Yew Trees is about 4'S X 3 X 2 feet, 

 and is partly buried in the ground. 



The height of the boulders above the sea is remarkable, their 

 highest level being 650 feet. 



This indicates a corresponding depression of the land, since 

 no Welsh glacier could have travelled over hill and down dale 

 to this summit-level. To render any such glacier work conceiv- 

 able, the Welsh mountains must have stood at a height beyond 

 any point for which there is the slightest evidence. 



This group of boulders on Frankley Hill appears to havebeeli 

 dropped by an iceberg travelling from Wales upon the top of 

 the clays and sands exposed in the railway cutting at a time when 

 the land was depressed at least 700 feet. In the clays and sands 

 upon which the summit group of erratics rests, we must have 

 beds belonging to an earlier date than the close of the glacial 

 epoch ; and the erratics in the cutting must be discriminated 

 from those left at the higher level. 



Some remarkable boulders were described from the neigh- 

 bourhood of Wolverhampton : (i) a striated boulder of felsite 

 1 1 X 3 X 3 feet ; (2) one of slate, 1 roken into two parts, but 

 which, when whole, measured 11-25 X 6-25 X 3"Sfeet; (3) one 

 of granite about 4-75 feet in each dimension, and weighing about 

 three tons. 



Mr. D. Mackintosh traces the origin of the so-called green- 

 stone " boulders (more properly to be called diorites or dolentes) 

 around the estuaries of the Mersey and the Dee. 



The area in w hich they are very much concentrated is intensely 

 striated, and nearly all the strife point divergently to the south 

 of Scotland, i.e., between N. 15° W. and N. 45° W. 



A large "greenstone" boulder has been found at Crosby, 

 resting on a perfectly flat glaciated rock surface, with strise 

 pointing N. 40° W. , ■ • 



Additional presumptions in favour of the Scottish derivation 

 of these boulders may be found (l) in- the fact that nearly all 

 these boulders consist of basic rocks similar to some found in 

 the south of Scotland, and (2) in the extent to which they are 

 locally concentrated on the peninsula of Wirral and the neigh- 

 bouring part of Lancashire. Many fresh greenstone boulders 

 have been lately exposed in the newest Bootle Dock excavation. 

 The largest is 6 X 4'S X 3 feet, and was found on the surface 

 of the upper boulder clay. As a rule these boulders are exces- 

 sively flattened and regularly grooved. 



Mr. J. R. Dakyns describes the occurrence of Shap granite 

 boulders on the Yorkshire coast. There are several at Long 

 Nab on ihe north side of the Nab ; one of these measures 3 

 cubic feet. Others are on the north side of Cromer Point ; south 

 of Cromer Point there are more till you come nearly to Filey. 

 There is one measuring 3X2-5X2 feet on the top of the clitr 

 about a mile from Filey. It is probably practically undisturbed, 

 for the ground slopes inland from the cliff, and therefore, if it 

 has been turned up in ploughing and moved, it cannot have been 

 moved far, for no one would take the trouble to cart a huge 

 boulder far up-hill. 



There are several boulders of Shap granite on the shore along 

 the north of Filey Bay, but none along the south till one reaches 

 Flamborough Head. Several occur along the shore between 

 Flamborough Head and Flamborough south landing ; one of A 

 these measures 36 cubic feet. One may be seen rather more l| 

 than a mile south of Bridlington Quay, and doubtless they have 

 travelled still further south, since there is one built into a wall 

 at Hornsea. 



The destruction of erratic blocks is going on so rapidly that 

 the Committee invite continued contributions of information 

 concerning them. 



Report of the ''Geological Record" Committee, by W. Whitaker, 

 B.A., F.G.S.— Since the last meeting of the Association the 

 third volume of the " Geological Record "has been published. 

 This gives an account of books, papers, &c., on geology, 

 mineralogy, and pala;ontology publi.-hed at home and abroad 

 during the year 1876. The fourth volume (for 1877) is in the 



