of Edinburgh, Session 1879 - 80 . 
(303 
and they are well covered by beds of gravel and sand. The boulder 
is on a knoll, near the top, but a little to the H.W. of it. The 
longer axis is in a direction S.W. and N.E. Penielheugh Hill is 
situated to the S.W. and distant about a mile from the boulder. 
The hill is 774 feet above the sea — the boulder 224 feet above the 
sea. The exposed rock of the hill on its west side reaches down 
to about 400 feet above the sea. 
That the boulder has been brought to its present site from 
Penielheugh, is evident, — the composition of the rock being 
the same in both. The Old Eed Sandstone rocks which prevail 
generally in the district, reach up to within about 100 feet of the 
top of Penielheugh, but only on the east side. These strata are 
entirely absent on the west side, suggesting, therefore, the proba- 
bility that the west side of the hill has been denuded of them by 
some agency which has come against the hill from the westward. 
This inference is confirmed by the fact, that on the sides of the 
hill facing the west, the igneous rocks are all bared , and many of 
them smoothed ; whilst on the sides facing the east, no igneous 
rocks are visible, being covered by sandstone strata, with drift 
materials over these. 
These facts will be better understood by reference to plate XVII. 
fig. 6, where P represents Penielheugh Hill, B the boulder. The 
strata in dark colour is the Old Eed Sandstone formation. 
On looking from the top of Penielheugh westward, a wide valley 
is seen in that direction, the Eildon Hills on the north, and the 
Minto Hills on the south. 
Through that valley some agency has undoubtedly come, imping- 
ing with great force on Penielheugh ; but whether a local glacier 
or a sea-current with floating ice, there is nothing to show, though 
the extensive beds of gravel and sand which abound in this 
district, at no great distance from Nesbit, seem rather to favour 
the latter theory. 
