2i8 Sheppard : The Yorkshire Boulder Committee 1 s Work. 



In November 1886 a meeting' of Yorkshire geologists was 

 held in the Leeds Mechanics' Institution, when a resolution was 

 passed, establishing a Committee to receive reports and conduct 

 observations relative to the erratic blocks of Yorkshire. 

 Circulars, and schedules indicating the information required, 

 were circulated amongst geologists in all parts of the county, 

 and met with a hearty response. The Committee was formed in 

 connection with the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, and its annual 

 reports have been printed regularly from the beginning, in ' The 

 Naturalist,' the first report appearing in January 1888. At this 

 time the Chairman was the late Professor A. H. Green, F.R.S., 

 and its Secretary the late Mr. S. A. Adamson, F.G.S. — two 

 exceedingly enthusiastic geologists, whose names will ever be 

 dear to Yorkshire 'hammer-men.' It is interesting to peruse 

 the contents of this first year's report. Mr. C. D. Hardcastle 

 gives an account of the ' Greystone ' at Leeds ; the Rev. E. M. 

 Cole some ' Notes on the Flamborough Head Boulders'; Mr. 

 Wm. Gregson reports upon the ' Erratic Blocks in the North 

 Riding of Yorkshire'; the late Mr. R. Taylor Manson gives 

 interesting details of the ' Stranger's Stone ' near Barnard 

 Castle, ' Bulmer's Stone,' Darlington, and others; Mr. John H. 

 Phillips contributes ' Notes on Shap Granite Boulders at 

 Scarborough '; and there is a Note upon the ' Hitching Stone,' 

 Keighley Moor, by the late Dr. H. W. Crosskey. Many of 

 the gentlemen named have regularly contributed interesting 

 records of the boulders of the county to the Committee ever 

 since. Mr. R. Taylor Manson, of Darlington, who has only 

 recently 'joined the majority,' has a large travelled boulder 

 of Shap granite, suitably inscribed, erected to his memory — 

 surely an appropriate and lasting monument to one who has 

 done so much towards encouraging geological science. 



As in the case of all subsequent reports, the result of the 

 first year's work of the Yorkshire Boulder Committee was 

 submitted to the British Association, who gratefully accept the 

 assistance of the Yorkshire geologists, and add : ' Were a similar 

 Committee organised in each county, the work of the Committee 

 of the Association could soon be brought to a satisfactory 

 conclusion.' Each year afterwards has the Yorkshire Committee 

 greatly assisted the larger Committee, in many instances even 

 going so far as to comprise the greater portion of the records 

 published by the Association. 



The second report of the Yorkshire Boulder Committee, 

 which appeared in November 1888, contains many points of 



Naturalist, 



