of Edinburgh, Session 1872 - 73 . 167 
feet. (A gneiss boulder near it about one-fourth the size. 
Numerous smaller do.) 
4. Oblong conglomerate boulder lying on a bank facing 
W.N.W. Longer axis W.N.W., 50 feet x 24 x 12 feet. 
(Shown to Convener by Mr Stables of Cawdor Castle.) 
Orkney. 
Mainland . — Mr Miller of Bin Scarth says, that a valley runs E. 
and W. across the mainland of Orkney, forming in its course 
the bed of the Lochs of Stennis and Stanay. There is no 
large boulder in this district, but on north exposure of the 
hills, there are small stones strewed over the surface, quite 
different from rocks in situ. The former are a white bastard 
freestone ; the latter, old red sandstone or flag pavement. 
There is evidence through all this valley, of it having been 
channel of a tidal strait. There are in it hummocks of sand, 
mud, and water- worn gravel. Below these, reporter found 
heaps of small sprigs, brushwood, and hazel-nuts, preserved 
in moss, similar to the submarine mosses and forests under 
the bays of Otterswick, Deersound, &c. 
The comparatively recent elevation from under the sea of 
all this district, is evident. Traces also exist of dry land with 
forests and other produce not now suiting climate. 
Beporter does not know of any large boulder in the Orkneys, 
except on Sanday Island. 
Sunday . — Dr Smith, secretary to the Edinburgh Boyal Physical 
Society, sends to the Committee the following extracts from a 
MSS. paper by the late Dr Patrick Neill, on the Shetland 
Islands, dated 26th January 1806: — 
“ 1 Moorstone of Sanda,’ Island of Sanday, flattest and 
lowest of the Orkneys. G-reater part only a few feet above 
sea. Near a place called Saville , and not far from Burness 
Parish Church, stands a large isolated mass of primary rock — 
an aggregate of quartz, whitish felspar, and black mica. These 
disposed in layers, so that when seen in the mass, they consti- 
tute a block of gneiss. I did not accurately make measure- 
ments, but roughly estimated weight at 12 or 13 tons. 
VOL. VIII. 
