of Edinburgh, Session 1880 - 81 . 
267 
It is on Tornain Hill, and on a slope, which faces W.H.W. 
It is a dolerite, though not so coarse as that on Pumpherston. 
Mr Melvin had an excavation made under the boulder, and 
ascertained that it rested partially on the trap rock of the hill ; this 
rock, however, being different in composition from that of the 
boulder. The nearest rock of the same kind, known to Mr Melvin, 
he stated to be in the Bathgate hills, situated about 5 miles to 
W.H.W. 
There is a valley between these hills and Tornain Hill, across 
which the boulder must have been transported. 
This boulder, like that at Ballengeich, has been broken, and con- 
sists of six fragments. The principal mass lies to the west of the 
fragments, as if they had been broken off by some force from the 
westward ; or they may have been broken off by concussion if the 
original mass fell from a height. 
The fragments have certainly not come off at any recent period. 
Judging by their surfaces they look quite as ancient as the principal 
mass. 
The principal mass is well rounded on all its sides, suggesting 
much rough treatment ere it reached its site. 
Some interest attaches to the boulder on account of a set of 
“ cup markings ” on it, of which an account is given by Mr Smith 
in a late volume of the “ Transactions of the Scotch Society of 
Antiquaries.” 
It is right to add that if a line be drawn from Tornain Hill to the 
Bathgate hills, it passes close to the site of the Ballengeich boulder. 
4. Mr Melvin mentioned to the Convener that, on the S.E. 
side of this Tornain Hill, there was once a dolerite boulder (which 
he had seen) measuring 21x5x4 feet, lying with its longer axis 
E. and W., and at a height of about 300 feet above the sea. 
If it came from the Bathgate hills (which was probable), it 
could, in his opinion, have come only by floating ice, through the 
valley between Tornain and the Crow hills, i.e., from the west- 
ward. 
5. Mr Melvin further informed the Convener, that in the 
channel of the Biver Almond, below Kirkliston, there is a boulder 
of Old Bed Sandstone conglomerate, — the nearest parent rock of 
which was probably the well-known belt of conglomerate crossing 
