838 
Proceedings of the Eoyal Society 
not only in the form of blocks on the surface^ hut also in the hoidder 
claysP The Criffel granite blocks are also commou in the houlder 
days of the vale of Eden, He adds that there are also “ Eshars 
in the valley, which yield blocks of Criffel granite.” 
In the Mnth Eeport of the English Boulder Committee, an ac- 
count is given of the boulders found while excavating for the new 
docks at Maryport, on the south side of the Solway ; among them 
were granite blocks, varying in size from pebbles to blocks of a ton. 
It is remarked in the Eeport that “ the nearest granite occurs in 
“ Kirkcudbrightshire Hills, 15 or 20 miles distant, nearly due north.” 
In the Eifth Eeport of the English Boulder Committee (Br. 
Pr. for 1877, p. 82) there is notice of a Criffel granite boulder found 
near Liverpool in excavating for new docks. It is added “ that Mr 
J. Geikie and Mr Horne pronounced specimens which were sent to 
them to he from the outskirts of the Criffel granite area.” 
There is ground for believing that Criffel granite boulders occur 
even so far south as Lancashire. Mr Mellard Eeade of Liverpool, 
C.E. and F.L.G.S., wrote in the course of 1882 to the Convener, 
that having for some years, while investigating the drift deposits 
near Liverpool, collected specimens from boulders, some of which 
were evidently derived from rocks different from any belonging to 
that part of England, he wished to submit these to any person 
known to the Convener to he well acquainted with the rocks of the 
S.W. of Scotland. The Convener having suggested Mr Dudgeon 
of Cargen, Dumfriesshire, Mr Eeade transmitted the specimens to 
him, the result of which is explained in the following extract of 
a letter from Mr Eeade to the Convener-— 
“Mr Dudgeon recognises with certainty Criffel granite, having 
assured himself of its identification by having seen in some 
of the specimens submitted to him the minerals sphene and alla- 
nite, which he is not aware occur in any other granitic district 
nearer than Aberdeenshire and Sutherland. He also thinks some 
of the granites come from veins in the Silurian rocks about 7 miles 
from Dumfries.” ^ 
* Mr M. Reade has since (Feb. 1884) read in the London Geological Society 
a paper narrating a visit he made to Kirkcudbrightshire, for the purpose of 
comparing chips from the Lancashire boulders with the supposed parent 
rocks. In this paper he mentions his identification not only of granite 
boulders with the rocks of Criffel and Cairnsmore of Fleet, but also of Liver- 
pool Silurian boulders with Kirkcudbrightshire rocks. When his paper was 
