12 H. B. Medllcott — Note on tlie Preceding Paper [No. 1, 



loftj ridge of schists, through deep gorges in which they have evidently 

 been conveyed, a huge block being occasionally found perched on the sides 

 of these gorges, some hundred feet above the present level of the stream ; 

 yet in such places I failed to observe any groovings or roundings of the 

 rocky sides. The absence of evidence of this kind may, perhaps, be attri- 

 buted to the rajjidly disintegrating action of the heavy rains. I was many 

 times puzzled to account for the positions in which these erratic blocks 

 occur. They are frequently found on the slopes of the range out of the 

 way of any of these main gorges, and even up the little receding valleys of 

 streams, which only drain the outer hills, and down which the blocks could 

 not have come. Must we superadd the agency of floating ice ? The 

 total absence of erratic blocks in other positions is often equally puzzling. 

 The position of this glacial deposit more to the west, in the confined and 

 elevated longitudinal valleys between Sihunta and Choari, imj^resses one 

 more forcibly with the antiquity of its orgin ; it there lies in gaps and on 

 ledges a full thousand feet over the deep drainage gullies close by." 



Thus I adopted the oi^inion while declaring the absence* of the 

 usual scorings, and trusting to the facts of great size and peculiar distribu- 

 tion. The first step was an appeal against negative evidence, based upon 

 the possible obliteration of superficial markings, by weathering and attrition, 

 and upon the fact that although it is quite true that a large glacier must 

 score its bed and the stones that lie thereon, transport by ice occurs largely 

 without any such marks being made. We have recently had in India, and in 

 this very connection of ice-action, a striking illustration of the unworthiness 

 of such negative evidence. In 1856, Mr. W. T. Blanf ord declared his convic- 

 tion that the Talchir boulder-bed was of glacial origin. Every year 

 subsequently one or more of the ofiicers of the Geological Survey were 

 engaged upon these rocks in various parts of India, and looking out for 

 evidence for or against this judgment, yet it was not till 1872 that Mr. 

 Fedden had the fortune to find a most complete case of striated and polished 

 Talchir boulders resting on a scored rock- surface. There are good speci- 

 mens of these scratched boulders now in the Indian Museum. I have 2)laced 

 a small one on the table for inspection. In the case of the Kangra boulders, 

 any possible glaciers in the Dhaoladhar must have been short, and have had 

 a very rapid discharge ; and consequently were of inconsiderable thickness, 

 conditions which would reduce the scoring action to a minimum. 



As to direct evidence, the matter of size of the blocks is of course 

 conditional. On an appropriate slope masses of any dimensions may be 

 moved with very little effort. If these Kangra big stones are, as Mr. 

 Campbell contends, solely torrential deposits from the mountain gorges, 

 we have only to work that simple condition so as to account for them 

 wherever found. It is here that a slight discrepancy occurs between Mr. 



