of Edinburgh, Session 1883-84, 
909 
2. That subsequently Scotland was for a considerable time 
submerged beneath the sea, which over-topped our highest 
mountains, covering them, and filling most of our valleys with sand, 
gravel, and mud, beds of which are noticed in our Reports as 
still visible, up to a height of at least 3000 feet above the present 
sea-level, — thereby concealing to* a great extent, traces of the pre- 
vious local land glaciation. 
3. That whilst Scotland was so submerged, and probably 
simultaneously, with the whole of the British Isles, and much of 
Northern Europe, an oceanic current from some north-westerly 
quarter prevailed, bringing masses of floating ice, with boulders 
upon them, which boulders were deposited on our hills (then sub- 
marine) when the ice stranded on these hills. 
4. That the existence of this north-westerly current is, if not 
certainly proved, at all events made highly probable, by the foUow- 
ing considerations : — 
(1) That boulders of all sizes, and differing from the rocks on 
which they lie, are more numerous on the west coast of Scotland 
(including the Hebrides), than elsewhere. 
(2) That when boulders are on hill slopes anywhere in Scot- 
land, these slopes 7nore frequently face the west than any other 
point. 
(3) That when boulders have a longer and a shorter axis, and 
are narrower at one end than at the other, the longer axis and the 
narrow end very generally point towards the N.W. 
(4) That when boulders are found lying against a rock, in such 
a way as to show that this rock had stopped the farther progress 
of the boulder, the relative positions of the boulder and of the 
obstructing rock imply, in a great majority of cases, transport of 
the boulder from the westward. 
(5) That many boulders are found on or near the tops of hills, 
at such heights above sea-level that no local glacier, assuming such 
to have been generated in neighbouring hills, could have the posi- 
tions of the boulders. 
(6) That on open ground, almost everywhere in Scotland, and 
more especially on the west coast of Scotland, including the Hebrides, 
the smoothings and the striations of the rocks show a movement over 
them from some north-westerly point. 
