190 REPORT— 1873. 



It is proposed by the Committee to issue a similar circular, with some 

 modifications, to Secretaries of Field-clubs and local Geological Societies in 

 England and Wales, and others who may be willing to assist in their work. 



The Committee would especially in^-ite the cooperation of the various 

 field-clubs of England and Wales, whose members, in their various excur- 

 sions, enjoy singular opportunities of becoming acquainted with the boulders 

 of the country. 



Chaenwood-Forest Bouldeks. 



The railway-cutting at Hugglescote, approaching Bardon Hill, passes 

 through an immense number of striated and polished boulders. Mr. Plant, 

 of Leicester (who has investigated the boulders of this district, and furnished 

 us with considerable information), describes this cutting at Hugglescote as 

 30 feet deep. The diift-gravel is a hard cemented mass, with hundreds of 

 erratics, at all heights, sticking not on their longer faces, but sometimes on end, 

 distinctly proving that the ice melted in situ, and left the materials to find 

 their own bearings. One, of which he saw the fragments, had to be blasted 

 to get it out, and was estimated by the engineer to weigh 10 tons. 



All the boulders (except one, a peculiar millstone-grit) were derived from 

 the Charnwood-Forest range, the most travelled from a distance of 30 miles, 

 the nearest about 2 miles. 



Some of the boulders were upwards of 5 tons in weight, and were striated 

 and polished frequently on more than one side. Many were angular and 

 subangular. They were very irregularly dispersed through an unstratified 

 matrix of sand and clay. 



The whole distance from the vast accumulation in the cutting to Bardon 

 Hill, the nearest point of Charnwood, a distance of about 2 miles, is covered 

 with trails of boulders. 



The jagged edges of the Bardon-Hill rock, 854 feet above the sea-level, 

 indicate the way in which boulders would be broken off, supposing the hill 

 itself covered with ice. 



During some part of the glacial epoch Charnwood Forest was evidently a 

 centre from which highly glaciated boulders were distributed. 



Mr. Plant reports that a great south front of igneous rock has been broken 

 down and distributed, east, south, and south-west, 10, 15, and 20 miles, in 

 direct lines. 



An area of 10 miles N.N.W. and 20 miles S.S.E. and S.W., is covered 

 with boulders derived from Charnwood Forest, fi-om 2 cwt. up to 10 tons. 



Centuries of cultivation (he adds) have been occupied more or less in clear- 

 ing the surface of these boulders. They are still found in great numbers, 2 

 to 3 feet deep ; but the surface-boulders are found in the walls of village 

 houses, churches, farm-houses, and other old structures, all over the county. 



Four large blocks from the railway-cutting at Hugglescote have been 

 removed, and placed in the grounds of the Leicester Museum. One of these 

 is a fine example of a polished rock, and is full of ice-grooves. Its dimen- 

 sions are : — 6 ft. high, 3 ft. 2 in. broad (or thick), 3 ft. wide ; weight nearly 

 4 tons. It consists of "porphyritic greenstone" from Charnwood Forest, grey 

 felspathic base (dolerite), with crystals (| to f on face) of quartz. Through 

 long chemical action in the drift the felspar has been decomposed, aud left 

 the crystals standing out all over the surface, except on the polished side. 

 The other three blocks are neai'lj- of the same size and composition. 



It is intended to remove other blocks to the museum-grounds for preser- 

 vation. 



