704 
Proceedings of the Royctl Society 
come. Professor Judd’s paper, giving reasons for believing that there 
were in Pliocene times mountains in Skye, Mull, Ardnamurchan, 
and even in Rum, some of which reached to a height of at least 
14,000 feet, solves the difficulty, and explains many other curious 
facts besides. 
For example, there is a series of granite boulders containing 
unusually large crystals of quartz, felspar, and mica, which occupy 
the straths between Fort- William and Kingussie. A boulder near 
Fort-William is 1500 feet above the sea, and from its position 
appears to have necessarily alighted on the hill from the westward 
(Committee’s 2d Report, p. 161-2). If the sea stood at 2000 feet 
or more above the present level, the valleys of Lochaber and the 
Spey would be occupied by sea, and through them a current could 
flow from the ocean on the west to the ocean on the east. The 
summit level now between Lochaber and Strathspey is 850 feet 
above the sea, so that if the climate at that time was such as to 
allow of glaciers among the mountains and of floating ice on the 
sea, there would be means of transporting boulders from Mull to 
Lochaber and Strathspey. 
5. There are several other instructive features connected with 
boulders brought out in this as well as in previous Reports. 
(1.) The different shapes of boulders. 
The Appin boulders are round shaped, whilst the Loch Creran 
boulders are angular, though the rock composing them is the same. 
The former are known in the district as “ the round stones of Appin.” 
These Appin boulders are on the shore of the Linnhe Loch, 
through which in former times there must always have been 
a rapid current flowing, between the high mountains, forming the 
Glen-na-Albin or Great Glen of Scotland. 
If icebergs then floated on the sea, these boulders must have 
undergone much pushing and rolling ; whereas the Loch Creran 
boulders, being in what would then be only an arm or inlet from 
the main channel, would be exposed to no such friction. 
In reference to the Kyle or sea strait, in what is now the line 
of the Caledonian Canal, the grinding to which the rocks on the 
sides of the valley have been subjected, is well seen at Cullochy 
on the north side, and at Inverfarrignig on the south side of the 
canal. 
