ON THE EllKATIC BLOCKS OF ENGLAND AND WALES. Ill 



At a distance of nearly half a mile are tkree more, similar to the last men- 

 tioned. 



Near them is a deposit of flints in clay and a gravel-pit. 



All these blocks except the first are south of the large boulder. 



These boiilders consist of felsite, resembling that in many of the " Elvaus." 

 A felsitic Elvan, at Tresavaen, Gwen-nap, Cornwall, cannot be discriminated 

 from them. Possibly, however, a nearer locality may be found. 



OXFOEDSHIEE. 



Professor Prestwich describes a boulder found last summer, near Oxford, 

 in a bed of subangular flint-gravel (high-level river-gravel), at Wolvcrcote 

 bricli-pit, on the high road from Oxford to Woodstock, at an altitude of 

 about 40 feet above the level of the river Isis. 



It consisted of a mass of hard saccharoid sandstone of concretionary origin, 

 some portion of it broken away, and the broken edges quite angular ; it 

 weighed about three tons. It bore no trace of ice-scratches. There were no 

 fossils to identify the sandstone ; but from general characteristics. Professor 

 Prestwich thinks that it is of Tertiary origin. Several smaller boulders, of 

 from I to 2 or 3 ft. cube, more or less worn, were dispersed irregularly 

 through the gravel, which is scarcely at all stratifled, and contains no fossils. 



Midland Cotjnties. 



Dr. Deane and your Secretary have examined numerous boulders in the 

 neighbourhood of Harborne, to W. and S.W. of Birmingham, between the 

 Hagley and Bristol roads. 



One hundred and sixty rounded and subangular masses of stone have been 

 examined in this district. Fifty-five of these are clearly traceable to local 

 rocks — Carboniferous, Permian, or Triassic; the remainder are of distant 

 origia. 



Very few of these travelled boulders are in situ. They have been rolled 

 or dragged off the land into ditches and by roadsides. Some, when the size 

 has been convenient, have been used by the " nailers " of the district for 

 hammering (or rather anvil) purposes. 



Ninety are of the varieties of felstone so abundant in the Bromsgrovc 

 district. About half of these are of small size. Five are of considerable 

 magnitude — 5 ft. 6 in. x 5 ft. X from 2 to 3 ft. ; the rest are from 2 to 4 ft. in 

 length and breadth, with variable thickness. One of these felstone boulders 

 (near Hole Farm, Moor Street, about two miles east of Hales Owen) is 

 worthy of special notice. Its dimensions are 3 ft. 6 in. x 2 ft. 6 in. x 2 ft. ; 

 and it contains in one specimen the three characteristics named in a previous 

 report as occurring separately in the boulders of Bromsgrove, A compact, 

 almost hornstone-hke matrix contains distinct included fragments and por- 

 phyritic felspar crystals. This specimen, therefore, confirms the view that 

 these felstone boulders, which are so numerous to the west and south of Bir- 

 mingham, as far as and beyond Bromsgrove, are portions of highly indurated 

 ash-beds. 



At FlaveU's Farm, California, is one boulder of grey granite 2 ft. by 

 1 ft. 8 in. by 1 ft. Yein-qnartz and quartzite constitute nine small and 

 three large boulders ; and one of these, found near Harborne station, contains 

 included brecciated fragments of rock. The size of these quartzite boulders, 



