842 
Proceedings of the Boyal Society 
Grampians, were dropped on the submarine slopes of the Pent- 
lands” {Memoir 'No. 33, p. 127) {Fifth Report^ p. 18). 
2. Edinburgh and Suburbs. — The late Charles Maclaren, in his 
Geology of Fife and the Lothians, published in 1838, refers to 
boulders which he found on or near Arthur’s Seat, the Castle Hill, 
and Calton Hill. 
On Arthur’s Seat, about twenty or thirty boulders are specified 
up to 30 tons, most of which he identified with rocks situated to 
the west of the boulders. Others (of sandstone) he found at 
much higher levels than any sandstone rocks now on the adjoining 
hills (p. 64, 2nd edition). 
To the east of the Castle Hill, numerous boulders are mentioned 
as having been found to the eastward, which are with good reason 
referred to the Castle rock ; but other boulders are mentioned 
(p. 91) as having been found on the west side of the Castle rock, 
which must be referred to some more distant locality. 
It is right for Convener to notice a Conglomerate boulder standing 
on a stone pillar in the public gardens at the foot of the Castle rock. 
It was brought there as an ornament to the gardens by Mr Henderson, 
nurseryman, who had been entrusted by the magistrates with the ar- 
rangement of the gardens. He had found it in his own Nursery Gar- 
dens, Leith W alk. It is probably a true erratic, hailing from Callander. 
On the Calton Hill, boulders are mentioned by Mr Maclaren 
as found there, “ of the very peculiar syenitic greenstone of Cor- 
storphine Hill” (p. 72). 
In the year 1847,* a new road (at the expense of Government), 
was made round Arthur’s Seat, which required an excavation to be 
made on the S.W. side of the hill, between the main body of the 
hill and an outlying knoll known on account of its basaltic 
columns as “ Sampson’s ribs,” at height of 390 feet above the sea. 
The hollow between the hill and the knoll was excavated to a 
depth of 20 or 30 feet, in order to lessen the steepness of the 
road. Thereby a trough or gully, with rocky sides sloping steeply 
towards the axis of the gully, was disclosed. The axis of the 
trough was about N.W. and S.E. ; its length about 120 yards; 
its width at the narrowest part where the road was made, about 
10 yards. As the rocky sides of the gully sloped down towards the 
* The particulars here given will be found in a paper by the Convener 
published in the New Edinburgh Philosophical Journal for January 1847. ' j 
