661 
of Edinburgh, Session 1877-78. 
His Grace the Duke of Argyll, at the meeting of the British As- 
sociation in Glasgow in 1876, was pleased to allude in complimentary 
terms to the researches of the Committee, and to express a hope that 
a condensed abstract of all the boulders reported on, might ultimately 
he framed. The suggestion will receive the consideration of the 
Committee. 
ARGYLLSHIRE. 
1. Glenelg . — Blocks of grey and red granite occur in the drift- 
beds through which the river Elg has cut. The rocks of this dis- 
trict are not granite, but clay schists. 
On the right side of the valley of the Elg, immediately above the 
road, about 2J miles east of Glenelg, there is a grey granite 
boulder, 21x18x10 feet, as shown on figs. 1 and 2, Plate I. 
The sharp end points hT.ET.W. Its height above the road is 1020 
feet, above the sea 1120 feet. 
It goes by the name of the Macrae Boulder, in consequence of a 
prophecy by a Mackenzie of Kintail, that some day, when one of 
the clan Macrae is travelling on the road below, it will fall and 
crush him. 
The boulder is on the very edge of a shelf of the hill, and pro- 
jects beyond it about 6 feet, as shown in figs. 1 and 2, Plate I. 
The rocks on which it lies are clay-stone schists. The boulder 
must therefore have been brought to its present position. It is 
said that on a hill some distance to the west there is a granite rock 
similar to that of the boulder. By what means, and how the 
boulder was deposited in its present precarious position, it is difficult 
to explain. Possibly, when deposited, there was no steep cliff, at the 
edge of which it now projects. The whole valley may have been 
filled with detritus up to the level of 1100 feet, and thereafter 
scooped out by the river, as the sea, in falling from one level to 
another, gave to the river more cutting power. This process of 
scooping might have continued for such length of time, that the 
cliff thereby formed at length reached the boulder. 
2. In Glen Rossdale (about 8 miles from Glenelg), at a height of 
about 900 feet above the sea, there is a boulder of coarse red 
granite, 5 x 4J x 3 feet, on the top of a narrow ridge of hypersthene 
rock, as shown on fig. 3, Plate II., on the left side of valley. 
VOL. ix. 4 s 
