143 
of Edinburgh, Session 1878 - 79 . 
At Shadir, about 4 or 5 miles to the east of Barvas, there is a 
lake whose longer axis runs N.N.W. ; its west hank has on it a 
considerable number of boulders, at a height of 240 feet above the 
sea. 
At Galston farm and shooting-lodge there are some rocky cliffs, 
reaching to a height of 120 feet above the sea, bared as usual on 
the N.W. slopes, and having a few small boulders on these slopes. 
A new school was built last year near Shadir, the stones for 
which consisted entirely of boulders extracted from under the peat. 
One of the masons employed on the school stated that many of the 
boulders consisted of Dalbeag granite, a variety which, on account 
of being better adapted for building than most of the rocks in the 
island, is well known to the native masons. One of the gateways to 
Stornoway castle was built of it. Dalbeag is distant from Shadir 
about 14 miles, and bears from Shadir west by south. 
The scarcity of boulders in the district between Barvas and the 
Ness, when compared with their numbers almost everywhere else in 
the Lewis, may probably be accounted for by the absence of any 
ranges of hills in the north end of the island. If the sea stood 1000 
feet or more above its present level, with a current in it from the 
N.W., and this current loaded with ice carrying boulders, it is to be 
expected that these ice floes, when obstructed in their progress by 
submarine rocks, would discharge their stony cargoes on these rocks, 
whilst in the districts where there were no submarine rocks, the 
current would flow on unimpeded. 
12. In the neighbourhood of Stornoway there is the peninsula of 
Eye, on which the Convener found some smoothed rocks, and some 
boulders deserving of notice. Smoothed rocks occur to the west of 
Phabaill village, their smooth sides facing the west. Boulders of 
gneiss and of a hornblendic rock lie on the moor to the S.W. of 
the village. The rock in situ here is a species of conglomerate or 
breccia. The gneiss boulders most probably come from the Barvas 
hills, as they consist of gneiss. The Convener was told of a 
hornblendic rock, similar to that of the boulders, being on the 
N.W. shore of the Eye peninsula, but he had not time to go in 
search of it. 
The Convener was informed by Henry Caunter, Esq. , a gentleman 
of scientific knowledge resident at Stornoway, in the employment of 
VOL x. s 
