786 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
But is it quite certain that the cup marks are, as Mr. Morrison 
thinks they are, artificial 2 
Professor Duns, in his notes on Ben Nevis, mentions that on one 
of the boulders mentioned by him, “ are several round hollows, so 
very like the cup-markings of the archaeologist, that at first sight 
they seem artificial. But in another block, a bit having been 
noticed protruding from the surface on being struck with the 
hammer, fell out, leaving the cup-marking on the stone ” (page 21). 
Might not the cup-markings on the Tulloch boulder be of the 
same nature as those on the Ben Nevis boulder, which at first 
deceived Professor Duns % 
4. Notices of some interest have been received regarding boulders 
in North Ronaldshay, Orkney, and from Fair Isle and Lunna in the 
Shetlands. Boulders on islands, which differ from the rocks of 
these islands, and can be identified with rocks of islands distant 
eight or ten miles, and separated by deep arms of the sea, are 
of extreme interest, because the theory of glaciers is quite inapplic- 
able to them. Floating ice is the only possible solution, and if 
subject to the agency of tidal currents and varying winds, it will 
also explain why the directions of transport vary as they do in the 
Orkneys and Shetlands. 
5. I have only now to allude to the small contribution which I 
have myself been able to supply for this year’s Report. It is 
shown by a woodcut in the Report and by a coloured diagram on 
the wall. The boulders referred to in these, being a compact gneiss, 
whilst the rocks of the hill are clay slate, there can be no doubt 
that they are true erratics, and that they have come from the west- 
ward, as there are few gneiss rocks anywhere to the eastward, 
and they occur in abundance towards the west in Jura, Colonsay, 
Mull, and along the shores of Lochs Sweyn and Killesport, 
The hill which bears these boulders, stands by itself, reaching to 
a height of 710 feet above sea-level. It is in a sort of amphitheatre 
formed by a range of hills both south and north, which reach to a 
height of from 1200 to 1500 feet, with openings towards both east 
and west. My conjecture, therefore, is that floating ice carrying 
boulders flowed in from the west, and, stranding on the hill, lodged 
there the boulders which now lie not only on the top, but on the 
south-east side of the hill. 
