118 EEPORT — 1880. 



various purposes, the remainder contained so many specimens, and most 

 of them of such great size, that they could not fail to rivet the attention 

 of every geologist who saw them. 



They were all partially, some of them perhaps deeply, buried in the 

 soil, and a few were almost completely concealed by the growth of various 

 plants rooted on them. 



Of the blocks in this group, one measured 10 x 3 X 3* 75 feet; and 

 another 10'5 x 5'5 x 3 feet, the last dimension in each case being merely 

 the height above the surface of the soil. Making full deductions for 

 irregularity of form, and ignoring the undoubted penetration into the 

 ground, each of these two blocks must have contained fully 100 cubic 

 feet ; and, taking the specific gravity at 2'64, the weight of each must 

 have been upwards of 8 tons. These were the largest blocks known 

 anywhere in the district. 



From this plantation we descended into the deep narrow valley which 

 it overlooks on the north-west, and noted an occasional Whitaker, here 

 and there, on the slope as we passed down, and a rather greater number 

 in and near the stream at the bottom — about 200 feet by estimation below 

 the level of the plantation. 



On the opposite slope we again saw an occasional block, and at the 

 summit were taken to an artificial straight gully, 60 paces in length 

 and 25 feet in width — the length being in a direction transverse to that 

 of the valley we had left. This gully, we were assured, had been made 

 simply through the dislodgment of large "Whitakers, which, in a long 

 narrow stream, had lain huddled together, and, so to speak, had been 

 qnai'ried for road repairs. 



All the Whitakers were of white opaque quartz, having, at least in 

 some cases, a laminated stnicture, and traversed occasionally with veins 

 and crystals of the same material; the crystals having in some instances 

 a suspicious look of being pseudomorphs of feldspar. 



The blocks were all more or less rugged, subangular, and without any 

 decided traces of glacial polish or scratches. In a very few cases smooth 

 striated surfaces presented themselves, but wei'C probably slickensides 

 only. 



The rock of the district is the well-known Devonian shale, or ' Shillet,' 

 of drab colour, having a tendency to divide into well-defined i-hom- 

 bohedrons ; and, according to the map of the Geological Survey, this 

 extends to great distances in all directions. It is occasionally travei-sed 

 by small quartz veins, but no parent rock is known which could have 

 supplied the "Whitakers. 



At least some of the blocks, instead of lying at once on the ' Shillet,' 

 were lodged in a heterogeneous accumulation of clay and stones, includ- 

 ing Whitakers from the size of an ordinary apple to some as large as a 

 cocoa-nut. 



That the blocks have travelled a considerable distance cannot be 

 doubted ; that their transportation was not efiected by the action of 

 water only, is certainly proved by their irregularity of form. From the 

 facts I saw it seems safe to say that they occur most plentifully on high 

 ground ; and that, unless those at low levels have rolled down from above 

 in recent times, the surface of the district must have been essentially the 

 same at the era of transportation as it is at present. 



Their presence must at times, no doubt, be an annoyance to the 

 farmer ; nevertheless, the roads, the hedges and other common walls, as 



