81 REPOllT — 1877. 



group lies on the side of a hill facing nearly E. They are visible in one 

 field, but the upper part of the .slope is covered with dense underwood and 

 timber, in which others may possibly be concealed. Some of these boulders 

 are of compact felstonc, and others of granite. 



Shropshire. 



Mr. C. J. Woodward, of Birmingham, reports that he has walked over 

 a considerable portion of the district having St. George's, Shropshire, as a 

 centre, and a three or four miles radius. In the whole district boulders 

 occur, though at times one may walk for a mile or so and not meet with them. 

 Their apparent absence, Mr. Woodward believes, is frequently from accidental 

 circumstances ; for, as mentioned by him in the Report of this Committee for 

 1873 (British Association Report, 1873, p. 192), many boulders are buried 

 as soon as mot with by farmers, many, too, get broken up for road purposes. 

 The most likely place to meet with boulders is about the buildings of a farm 

 or at the corners of streets in villages, for in these places the stones serve a 

 useful purpose, and consequently are not destroyed. The size of the boulders 

 in this district is- from 2 to 3 feet in length, by about the same in width and 

 thickness ; but besides these, which are boulders proper, there are stones of 

 various sizes down to pebbles, composed of the same kind of rocks, and indis- 

 tinguishable from what are commonly called boulders, except by their size. 

 The number of boulders per square mile in the district is probably from 

 to 200 or so. The boulders consist mainly of granite and felstonc. In 

 the neighbourhood of Lilleshall Hill are several boulders, which consist of 

 compact felstonc, containing iron pyrites and garnets. Boulders of similar 

 rock, containing garnets, have been met with at Wightwick, near Wolver- 

 hampton, and in a lane near Wroxeter, Salop. 



Hertfordshire. 



Boulders are found at Boyston and Ashwell, upon which Mr. II. G. Ford- 

 ham, of Boyston, reports. The characteristic materials are a millstone-giit 

 and a fine compact sandstone, the latter being the most prevalent. Tn the 

 village of Ashwell there are as many as forty boulders, the largest of which 

 is 3 x 2-G x 1*6 ft. It is much worn and rounded by exposure to the wheels 

 of carts. Another smaller cubical boulder measures about a foot in each 

 direction, and is of fine yellowish sandstone. Other boulders of this material 

 occur of larger size, up to about 2 ft. 6 in. in the longest diameter. There 

 are patches of Boulder-clay and gravel on most of the neighbouring hills, 

 and probably these boulders have been derived from them. These gravels 

 are mostly composed of Hints, but they also furnish fossils and fragments 

 from the Oolite and Lias. 



In Boyston is a boulder remarkable for its size and history. It is of 

 millstone-grit, and measures 4 ft. 8 in. X 3 ft. 6 in. X 2 ft. 2 in. The history 

 of this boulder, so far as known, is given in the notes to ' Boyston Winter 

 Recreations in the Days of Quceii Ann ' — a translation from a Latin poem 

 printed in 1710. It has been used as the footstone of a cross of considerable 

 antiquity, and is now preserved in the garden of the Boyston Institute. 



Two boulders, one of millstone-grit, 3x2x1 ft., with rounded angles, 

 and another of sandstone, smaUer, occur in the garden of a house in Mel- 

 bourn Street. 



