80 O. Feistmantel — Giants' -Kettles in Bajniahal District. [March, 



some of the pot-holes described by him as produced during the diluvian 

 period.* 



The explanation brought forward by Mr. Blanford, is the same as Dr. 

 Feistmantel intended to show in his paper and he had never doubted it, but 

 it is not, however, always so simple ; and, as he had said distinctly, his obser- 

 vations were a contribution to those instances of pot-holes produced by 

 running water. Another reason he had for describing the pot-holes was to 

 show the other phenomena combined with them, especially the polished 

 surfaces of rocks and longitudinal furrows in the river bed, which resemble 

 so much those produced by glacier action, though they are here apparently 

 produced by water only. Polished and scratched surfaces are not therefore 

 always to be considered as necessarily produced by ice action. 



He was much interested in this question and would be greatly obliged 

 to any body who would give him positive information (measurements and, if 

 possible, drawings) about the pot-holes in India. 



Dr. Rajendealala Mitea remarked that the excavations shown on the 

 plates laid on the table were very like what he had seen on the Asvathama 

 rock at Dhauli near Cuttack, at Khandagiri and at Behar. Similar excava- 

 tions had been noticed by antiquarians at Girnar on the western coast, and 

 in the neighbourhood of other ancient sites of Buddhist monasteries, and 

 they had hitherto been believed to be artificial. Major Markham Kittoe 

 took the Asvathama excavations for mortars in which the Buddhist monks, 

 he thought, used to pound medicines for men and cattle. This opinion 

 had been accepted by James Prinsep. Dr. Mitra could not make out from 

 the drawings the size of the holes, but those he had seen were from one to 

 two feet in diameter and eight to ten inches in depth. 



Mr. H. F. BLANroRD observed that Dr. Rajendralala Mitra probably 

 referred to something quite different from pot-holes. 



The President remarked that he recollected a similar hole worn in an 

 isolated boulder or block of granite lying in the bed of the Sutlej, near 

 the Waugton bridge over that river in Kumaon. The block stood consi- 

 derably above the present ordinary water level and probably formed part 

 of a fall of rock which had at some former period fallen into the river 

 and dammed the water to a higher level ; this block was pierced by a hole 

 reaching from the surface to near the bottom, and the impression on his 

 mind at the time was that it had clearly been bored out by a- pebble 

 working in an eddy when the river was at a higher level. But it was 

 many years since he had seen this block. 



* See Helmersen : Das Vorkommen und die Entstehung dor Riesenkessel in 

 Finnland ; Memoires de I'Acad. Imp. de St. Petersburg, 1867, Vol. XI, Ser. 7., with 3 

 plates. Also Vogt, Geologie, Bd. II., p. 191. 



