1848.] DARWIN ON THE TRANSPORTAL OF ERRATIC BOULDERS. 315 
2. On the Transportal of Erratic Boulders from a lower to a higher 
level. By C. Darwin, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S. 
Ir will, I think, be generally admitted that the most valid objection 
which has been advanced against the theory of the transportal of 
erratic boulders by floating ice, lies in the fact of their having not 
unfrequently been carried from a lower to a higher level. Mr. Hop- 
kins *, indeed, referring to certain boulders of a peculiar conglomerate 
described by Prof. Phillips, considers this fact as affording an abso- 
lute proof of the diluvial theory, since, he adds, “it is evident that no 
floating ice could possibly transport a boulder from the depths of the 
vale of Eden over the heights of Stainmoor.’’ Prof. Hitchcock has 
several times alluded to similar cases in North America as offering a 
very great difficulty. 
The first instance recorded, as far as I know, of the transportal of 
boulders from a lower to a higher level, is by Prof. Phillipst, who 
in 1829 described numerous large blocks of grauwacke not far from 
Kirby Lonsdale, scattered over the mountain limestone from a height 
of 50 to 100 feet above the parent rock, which lies immediately be- 
neath. He adds, ‘‘ Further on, to an elevation of 150 feet, the blocks 
are still numerous, and they may be seen, by ascending one ledge 
after another, almost to the top of the Fell, 500 feet above their 
original position. They appear,” he continues, ‘‘ to have been driven 
up at a particular place by a current towards the north, and after- 
wards carried along the surface of the limestone in a narrow track 
toward the summit of the Fell.”” The conglomerate alluded to by 
Mr. Hopkins has been transported from the bottom of the valley 
of the Eden, where the rock lies cn situ at the height of 500 feet 
above the level of the sea, to and over the pass of Stainmoor at the 
height of 1400 feet{: therefore the boulders now lie 900 feet above 
their original position. In 1838 I observed many boulders of gra- 
nite strewed on Ben Erin on the western side of Glen Roy§, up to 
the height of 2200 feet above the sea; the granite resembled in cha- 
racter that seen zm situ at the head of the Spey, and which, in Mac- 
culloch’s Geological Map, is likewise the nearest district of granite : 
if, as I believe, the boulders came from this place, they must have 
been carried up at least 900 feet. Mr. Maclaren|| has described 
(1839) numerous blocks of sandstone on the higher parts of Arthur’s 
Seat, ‘400 feet above any spot where sandstone now exists 2” situ.” 
Quite recently Mr. D. Milne] has noticed other boulders on the 
same hill, belonging to the coal series, and remarks ‘‘ that there is 
no place in the neighbourhood from which these blocks could have 
come which is not at least 200 feet below their level.’’ In the Isle 
of Man, the Rev. J. G. Cumming has observed with great care a 
* Journal of the Geol. Soc. vol. iv. p. 98. 
y+ Transactions of the Geol. Soc. vol. iii. (second series) p. 13. 
{ Treatise on Geology (Lardner’s Encyclop.), by Join Phillips, vol. i. p. 270. 
§ Philosophical Transactions, 1839, p. 69. 
|| Geology of Fife, &c. p. 47. 
{| Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, vol. xlii. p. 167. 
