78 0. Feistmnntel — Giant a' -Kettles in Bajmahal District. [March, 



driven in and rolled round — and this especially causes the excavation of the 

 holes. The rock all round was more or less polished, showing various holes 

 unfinished or just hegun. The river-bed was very regularly longitudi- 

 nally furrowed and polished, in the same way as is generally ascribed to ice 

 action, but in this case undoubtedly, only by the force of the running water, 

 in which sand and stones are carried down. 



This year he had observed similar forms in the Barakur district, near 

 Nirsha (6 miles west of Barakur), in the Kudi-Nuddi. Here the sandstone 

 of the coalstrata crops up in many thick ridges and immense blocks he about, 

 which from their polished surfaces and polished edges show, that they must 

 have been carried there by the stream. It was in three of these blocks that 

 he observed the Kettles. They were all com^^lete, the dimensions were the 

 following : 



1. Aperture of diameter 60 c. m., depth about the same. 2. Dimen- 

 sions almost the same. 3. The longer diameter 76 c. m., the shorter one 

 70 c. m., and the depth 85 c. m. The other conditions were the same as 

 in those in the Eajmahal Hills. 



In this locality also there is no doubt that running water, and not a 

 cataract, caused the pot holes, and that the excavation is still in progress, 

 especially in the rainy season. 



In one of these pot holes in the Kudi-Nuddi there was a heap of sand 

 and round pebbles, in another some water on the bottom. 



There is therefore not the least doubt but that these forms are caused 

 by running and whirling water only, without the aid of cataracts ; and 

 some phenomena, especially the polished surface of the rocks and the longi- 

 tudinal furrows in the river bed in the Kajmahal Hills are not at all unlike 

 those which are described as produced by glaciers, although this cause can- 

 not be thought of at all. 



Of the reported cases from other countries the most important are 

 enumerated in the paper and the different ways of explanation are given. 



Among these are the cases reported by Mr. Jackson from New-Hamp- 

 shire ; (1844), by Mr. Martins from the Chamonix valley (1844) ; by 

 M. Collegno from South France, in the Tarn Eiver (1844) ; by Mr. Helmer- 

 sen from Finland (neighbourhood of the lake of Ladoga &c.,) (1867j ; by 

 Messrs. Boger and Reusch from near Christiania (1874) &c. 



From India only one case is reported, as far as the author knew, by 

 the Missionary Mr. Krick from the river bed of the Brahmaputra, near 

 the Tibetan boundary (1857). Major Godwin-Austen, however, informed 

 him that he has seen similar forms to these in the Naga-Hills, some of 

 them very deep and narrow. 



Mr. H. F. Blanfoed said that one of his earliest recollections as a 

 student of Geology was precisely that explanation of the formation of pot 



