Y. 
NOTES ON BOULDERS AND BOULDER-CLAY IN NORTH 
HERTFORDSHIRE. 
By H. Geoege Eoedham, E.G.S. 
Read at Watford , 1 5 th January , 1884. 
PLATES I and II. 
Theee years ago I brought before the Society, in a short paper,* 
the subject of Erratic Blocks or Boulders, and the work being done 
by a Committee of the British Association in systematically recording 
the existence and character of these relics of the Glacial Period, 
and particulars with respect to them. At the same time I appealed 
to the members of the Society for information and notes respecting 
the many boulders which are scattered over our county. The 
subject does not seem, however, to have attracted much attention. 
Nevertheless I am still not without hope that something may be 
done in the way of recording facts which may help to elucidate 
the problem of the Glacial Period as far as Hertfordshire is con¬ 
cerned ; and in laying before the Society a few notes on the 
boulders of my own immediate neighbourhood, I may perhaps 
suggest to other members the possibility of their doing a similar 
work in their own districts. Lest it should be thought that 
nothing short of detailed and elaborate information is valuable, I 
would at once say that any notes, however brief, if only of those 
boulders which, from lying in prominent positions in public places, 
come under the daily observation of the passers-by, will be very 
gladly received. The Erratic Block Committee of the British 
Association has now made eleven Annual Reports, in which are 
recorded many hundreds of boulders from all parts of England, as 
well as from Wales, but much remains to be done, and from day to 
day the destruction of boulders makes the accomplishment of the 
work more and more difficult. The more fully the matter is gone 
into, the more apparent becomes the importance and magnitude of 
the inquiry, and as the Committee are anxious not to attempt to 
deal, in any summary or analysis, with the results obtained, before 
there is material at their disposal which may enable them to make 
such a summary fairly complete for the area to which it relates, 
they naturally look for local assistance to those parts of the country 
from which they have at present little or no information. In 
Hertfordshire but little has been done, while there is undoubtedly 
much work which should be done, and which must be done before 
we can regard the county in this matter as anything but a terra 
incognita. 
The ultimate practical object of the British Association Com¬ 
mittee is the preparation of a map showing on a sufficiently large 
* “ On the Importance of Recording Erratic Blocks,” ‘ Trans. Herts. Nat. 
Hist. Soc.,’ Yol. I, p. 163. 
VOL. in.—PART i. 
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