140 V. Ball — On Giant-Kettles (pot-Jioles) in India. [June, 



elevation of the country, equivalent to a reduction o£ temperature calcu- 

 lated by Mr. H. F. Blanford at about 20° Fahr., and reduces the difficulties 

 surrounding the question, and the differences of opinion of all save extreme 

 anti-glacialists within very much narrower bounds. 



3. Memar'ks on tJie Abstract and discussion of Dr. O. FeistmanteV s 

 JPajper, entitled " Giant-Kettles (pot-lioles) caused hy Water-action in 

 Btreams in the MajmaTial Sills, and Bardkar district.''^ By V. Ball, 

 M. A,, F. G. S., Geological Survey of India. 



As I was not present at the meeting of the Society in March when 

 the above-mentioned paper by Dr. Feistmantel was read, I wish it to be 

 understood that the following remarks are based on the published abstract* 

 of the paper and the account of the discussion which followed it. 



Dr. Feistmantel claims for his observations an originality and im- 

 portance which, I think, I shall be able to shew they do not possess. 



Ordinarily speaking, if an author can be found to write and a Society to 

 print a paper on a subject like the above, there might perhaps be no good 

 reason for special remark or criticism. The paper may be in itself a 

 valuable contribution to knowledge. It is because the writer, inferentially 

 if not directly, casts a slur upon a Department, and the Society is one 

 in which many of the members of that Department take a warm interest — 

 that the occasion seems a fitting one for protest. 



If the phenomena were of such rarity and importance as is stated, it 

 would have been an act of grave omission on the part of the officers of the 

 Geological Survey not to have described them in full detail on every occa- 

 sion that they met with them. 



A geologist, in India especially, where large areas have to be described, 

 must however use some judgment in the selection of phenomena for de- 

 scription. I think I may say that Pot-holes are one of those which may 

 safely be relegated to a minor position and passed with httle or no notice. 



The origin of many simple phenomena of denudation, erosion or 

 deposition are subjects suitable for description in elementary manuals ; but 

 if all this A. B. C. is to be reopened and discussed and supported by tables 

 of measurements in every descriptive memoir ; what will be the length 

 of such pre-Raphaelite descriptions ? and where will they find a period ? 



I am sure there is not a member of the Geological Survey who would 

 not be ready to support the statement made at the meeting by Mr. H. 

 Blanford to the effect that " the jDhenomena were exceedingly common 

 and their explanation generally obvious." This assurance one would 

 have thought, from so competent an authority, ought to have been suffi- 



* P. A. S. B. March, 1877, pp. 77-79. 



