149 
of Edinburgh, Session 1878 - 79 . 
mention that robbers used to live in the recesses among the 
boulders. The Convener’s man-servant crept into one of the recesses 
pointed out, which was so large as not only to admit him, but con- 
ceal him when in it from our view. 
Another observation by the Convener in connection with this 
district may be mentioned. On the north side of the middle 
Barvas hill there is a deep hollow, like a huge trench, close to and 
parallel with the northern contour of the hill, suggesting the idea, 
that when the country was submerged, an oceanic current from the 
N.W. striking on the hill may have scooped out the drift forming 
the sea-bottom at this place. 
14. The Convener was as much impressed as Mr Geikie appears 
to have been with the number and direction of lakes in the Lewis. 
In his “Great Ice Age” (2d ed., p. 168), under the head of “ Lakes 
occupying hollows in the till or other superficial deposits,” Mr 
Geikie states, — “ They rest sometimes in the hollows between banks 
of till, and not unfrequently in cup-shaped depressions of sand 
and gravel. The most considerable assemblage of these lakes of 
which I know, is in the Island of Lewis ; the low lying tracts of 
which are literally peppered with lakelets. L>Tot a few of these 
belong to the drift-dammed series. But hundreds of them appear 
to rest in hollows of the till, their longer axis pointing by N.W. 
and S.E.” The Convener remembers that when on the road from 
Stornoway to Garry-na-hine, he stopped the carriage to count the 
lakes spread out before him. They were 17 in number — though seen 
from a point only about 300 feet above the sea. To the north and 
north-east of the Barvas hills the lakes are even more numerous. 
The Convener also concurs with Mr Geikie in his remarks ( Lond . 
Geol. Soc. Journal , vol. xxix. p. 541) that, “with one exception, all 
the longest and most considerable lakes range in a direction from 
S.E. to N.W.” “They extend in long lines, often for a mile or 
two, with an insignificant breadth.” 
When Mr Geikie proceeds to suggest a cause for the formation of 
these lakes, and for their persistency in a N.W. and S.E. direction, 
the Convener is unable to concur. He says — “ When the ice that 
swept across the Lewis finally vanished, it left as marks of its power 
not only rounded and fluted hill tops, but hollows scooped out in 
the solid gneiss, The till that accumulated below the ice was also 
