ON OSSIFEROUS CAVES AT UPHILL. 343 



The Committee do not feel justified in requesting a grant for future 

 work, but they seek reappointment with a grant of 10^. (the sum not 

 claimed last year) to cover expenses already incurred. It ia their inten- 

 tion to further examine the ground as quarrying proceeds. 



Erratic Blocks of the British Isles. — Rejoort of the Committee, consisting 

 0/ Professor E. Hull (GhairipMn)^ Mr. P. F. Kendall (Secretary), 

 Professor T. G. Bonney, Mr. C. E. De Range, Professor W. J. 

 Sollas, Mr. R. H. TiDDEMAN, Rev. S. N. Harrison, Mr. J. 

 HoRNE, Mr. P. M. Burton, Mr. J. Lomas, Mr. A. B. Dwerry- 

 HOUSE, Mr. J. W. Stather, and Mr. W. T. TUCKER. (Drawn vp 

 hy the Secretary.') 



The records of boulders observed during the past year have been derived 

 principally from Yorkshire, thanks to the activity of the local organisation 

 which has for so many years occupied itself with the investigation ; but the 

 Committee is hopeful that other areas may be subjected to an equally 

 stringent examination. Work had been commenced in the county of 

 Durham under the stimulus of an enthusiastic worker, the late Dr. Taylor 

 Manson, of Darlington ; and though the Committee has to deplore his 

 removal by death before any definite results were obtained, it is expected 

 that the movement which he initiated will be productive of valuable 

 contributions to the knowledge of a rich and scarcely touched field. 



An important advance aflfecting much of the eastern side of England, 

 and particularly the counties of Northumberland, Durham, and Yorkshire, 

 is marked by a visit paid to the Cheviot country by the Yorkshire 

 Geological and Polytechnic Society at the instigation of members of tlie 

 Boulder Committee of the county. The object of this excursion was to 

 study the igneous rocks of the Cheviots, with a view to the recognition 

 of any erratics of similar types, and to determine how far the ascription 

 to this source was correct of a series of porphyrites which form a very 

 considerable proportion of the far travelled boulders of Yorkshire. It 

 was found that an even larger number of types of erratics could be traced 

 to the Cheviots than had been anticipated. A large number of specimens 

 were collected, and the Secretary of this Committee will be glad to furnish 

 sets of examples to any geologists willing to assist in the investigation of 

 the boulders of the East of England. 



A very important further result was obtained from the excursion. 

 In the report for 1897 reference was made to the identification by 

 Professor Brogger of the Sparagmite Sandstone of Scandinavia in a series 

 of Yoi'kshire eiTatics submitted to him. In subsequent reports occurrences 

 of a similar rock in various localities in Yorkshire have been mentioned, 

 but some doubt has been felt regarding the identification, and all such 

 records have been given with a ' ? '. 



This caution has been justified by the discovery that a sandstone 

 precisely resembling some of the erratics of Yorkshire constitutes a signi- 

 ficant proportion of the stones in the ' foreign ' drift of the country about 

 "Wooler and Ingram in the Cheviots. It is referred to in the Geological 

 Survey Memoirs of the district under the name of ' Greywacke Sandstone,' 

 and its source is given as in the Silurian area of the Tweed Valley. 



