356 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Feb. 26, 



A few yards from Delamere church I saw five boulders, two small 

 and three large. They were found at a lower level by the Eev. 

 Darwin Fox, and removed to a safe resting-place within the sound 

 of the church -bell. One of them, more or less rounded, consisted of 

 Eskdale granite, and measured 5 x 3§ x 3 feet ; another (Eskdale gra- 

 nite) was polished on one side, and measured 3| x 3| x 2. The third 

 large boulder consisted of Criffell granite, and measured 3| x 3| x 3 

 feet. On one side of it there was a groove about 6 inches wide and 

 2 inches deep, which curved round part of the boulder. A smaller 

 stone lying in the neighbourhood will fit closely on to the top of 

 this larger boulder ; and there is a popular belief that when once so 

 fitted it can scarcely be removed again, owing to the power exer- 

 cised over it by the Evil Spirit. The tradition is, that the boulders 

 were thrown by the Devil from Beeston Castle, and aimed at Eddis- 

 bury hill, but fell a mile short of their destination. It is worthy of 

 remark that the popular diabolical theory of the transportation of 

 boulders, in every instance attributes their present position to 

 their having failed in reaching their intended destination. On the 

 western side of Delamere forest, in the village of Barrow, a number 

 of large boulders may be seen ; and here the sandstone rock comes 

 to the surface. 



Boulders in Chester. — In Chester, for a very long time past, it 

 has been customary to pave the streets with small erratic boulders 

 and pebbles, and to place large boulders against or at the corners of 

 the walls of houses, &c. It has likewise been customary to pave the 

 swampy roads of the vicinity with similar erratics. A large pro- 

 portion of the smaller, and a few of the larger stones have been 

 gathered from the surface of arable fields or brought from brick- 

 pits. A certain proportion, including the very large boulders, were 

 probably found in digging house-sites. But I have been informed 

 that most of the stones were brought in boats from the beach running 

 along the N.E. side of the estuary of the Dee, where many similar 

 stones may still be seen. Wherever the stones immediately came 

 from, they can nearly all be traced to parent rocks in the Lake 

 district and south of Scotland. In general they are more or less 

 polished and striated, excepting those which have evidently been 

 subjected to recent littoral attrition. The prevailing rock is a hard 

 felstone, varying in structure from flinty to coarse-grained, and in 

 colour from rather dark (like "Wastwater Scree rock) to green and 

 grey. Next comes porphyry, then Criffell, Eskdale, and unknown 

 varieties of granite, and fine-grained syenite from Ennerdale and 

 Wastdale. Eelspathic breccia is rather common. Among the smaller 

 stones there is a large percentage of Upper Silurian grit and argil- 

 lite. Greenstone is not absent ; but it does not predominate, as at 

 Dawpool, beyond Parkgate. The number of erratics in Chester and 

 the neighbourhood would undoubtedly be sufficient to build a good- 

 sized town. In the village of Farndon, eight miles south of Chester, 

 there are many intensely glaciated boulders, some of them exceeding 

 2 feet in average diameter. It would appear that in this neigh- 

 bourhood they were formerly prevalent in the fields, either on the 



