of Edinburgh , Session 1879-80. 
583 
that it touched the rocky table at three points, each point of con- 
tact consisting of a few square inches. 
The boulder was 13 feet long, 12 feet wide, and about 6 feet high. 
Its longer axis lay across the ridge, viz., about N. and S. Neither the 
nature of the rock composing the boulder, nor its own position, gave 
any indication of the direction from which it had come. It was a 
hard compact gneiss, the rock which prevails in most of the hills of 
the district on all sides. One feature in the position of the boulder 
offered a suggestion, though slight, as to the direction of its trans- 
port. If the rocky table on which it lay was sloping as now (at an 
angle of 22° to the west) when the boulder landed on the table, it is 
probable that it must have come from a westerly rather than from 
any other point. If it came from an easterly direction, it would, by its 
own weight when still in motion, have slid off the table altogether. 
But the assumption that the table on which it rests was originally 
sloping as now, may not be correct. On this ridge denudation may 
have changed the surface — except where protected by the boulder. 
Moreover, it is possible that the boulder itself, by the mere action of 
the wind upon it, might cause it to move on and abrade the rock. 
The space between it and the rock may also have been acted on by 
frost. Certain it is, that at present the stability of the boulder is most 
precarious. With a lever, I could easily have moved the boulder off 
its site. The innkeeper at Port Sonnachan informed me that there 
had actually been a proposal by some travellers staying at his inn, 
to perform this exploit, and that he had prevented it. 
I am unable to explain how the boulder could have got on the 
apex of the hill, except on the supposition that a sheet of thick ice, 
strong enough to float the boulder, may have stranded on the hill ; 
and that when it melted, the boulder might have subsided on the 
part where the ice had stuck. 
6. Having asked my guide, whether there were any other large 
boulders in the neighbourhood, I was conducted by him to the side 
of a hill, about \ of a mile to the eastward, well-covered with boulders. 
The height above the sea was about 900 feet. I was rather surprised 
to find the boulders here in such positions as to indicate that they 
had come from N.N.E. The largest measured 18 x 10 x 10 feet, and 
its longer axis lay N. and S. I observed that most of the other 
boulders lay in a similar position. The rocks presented smoothings 
