1873.] MACKINTOSH REMARKABLE BOULDERS. 357 



surface or slightly imbedded. A farmer told me that many had been 

 removed from the fields by means of a coupling-chain and three or 

 more horses, and that some very large ones had been buried beneath 

 the reach of the plough. 



In many villages in Cheshire and elsewhere boulders have become 

 invested with an additional interest from their having rested for 

 centuries in positions in which they were placed by man. At the 

 corner of a tavern or barn, or at the door of a smithy, successive 

 generations of children have, in playful moments, unwittingly effaced 

 marks which were imprinted by ice before Man became a denizen of 

 the earth, and left fresh scratches and polished surfaces of a kind 

 not difficult to be distinguished by the expert, though sometimes 

 calculated to deceive the tyro. 



Boulders at high levels. — Far-travelled boulders at a great altitude 

 above the sea are especially worthy of attention. Sir Henry de la 

 Beche long ago stated that there were erratics on the Pennine hills 

 up to 1800 feet above the sea. I see no reason why this should be 

 doubted, though I am not aware of any at a greater height than from 

 1100 to 1500 feet on Holcombe hill, north of Manchester, in the 

 neighbourhood of Macclesfield, and on Stainmoor. I lately very 

 unexpectedly found a considerable number of boulders, both angular 

 and rounded, but very little glaciated, on the Keuper- sandstone 

 tableland called Raw Head, which is the highest of the Peckforton 

 hills, Cheshire. They may be seen in the neighbourhood of Mr. Ger- 

 rard's farmhouse, associated with a thin covering of sandy and pebbly 

 drift, beneath which, in hollows, there is here and there a little clay. 

 They reach an altitude of about 1000 feet above the sea. They 

 consist of Eskdale granite, porphyry, felstone, syenite, a little Criffell 

 granite, &c, and reach 3x3x2 feet in largest dimensions. 



High-level Boidders on the Welsh borders. — In the neighbourhood 

 of Llangollen, resting on "Wenlock shale or grit, and Carboniferous 

 limestone or sandstone, there are many igneous boulders. Above 

 Trycarreg farm, S. of Berwyn or Llantysilio station, at the height of 

 at least 1000 feet above the sea, I saw a felstone boulder measuring 

 8x7x3 feet ; and there are many on the high ridge between Llan- 

 gollen and Glyn Ceiriog. Some distance N". of Nant-y-du, near a 

 chapel, there is a split felstone block measuring 6x3x3; and all the 

 way up the Eglwyseg limestone- escarpment igneous boulders may be 

 seen. On the summit of the escarpment, up to a height of at least 1600 

 feet above the sea, many enormous igneous boulders may be found. 

 So far as I have noticed, they are all felspathic lava (often very 

 compact), or felspathic ashes. They arc generally well rounded. 

 When broken they are found to be weathered white to a certain 

 depth ; but their surface is dark-coloured, and altogether they form 

 so great a contrast to the limestone blocks in the neighbourhood that 

 they can scarcely fail to arrest the attention of the most careless 

 observer. They sometimes occupy somewhat perched positions ; and 

 I saw one beneath which the limestone beds had evidently been 

 crushed. I measured three, one of them 6x3x3 feet, another 

 6x4x4 feet, and a third- 7x4x3 feet. They must have come 



