II.—On some supposed Lithodomous Perforations in Limestone Rocks

Abstract

Within the last few months considerable, interest has been revived on the question of the origin of certain small excavations or borings which have been found in limestone rocks in different localities in Sicily, France, England, and Wales. The first public notice of them in England was by Dr. Buckland, whose attention, when at a meeting of Geologists at Boulogne in 1839, was called to some borings which had been found in the under-surface of a ledge of Carboniferous Limestone rock in the Boulonnais. After this Dr. Buckland examined some similar borings which the Rev. N. Stapleton had observed near Tenby, and described both caseg, in a communication to the Geological Society in 1841. About the same time that Dr. Buckland was engaged with these excavations, M. Constant Prévost found some similar perforations on Monte Pelegrino, near Palermo. Mr. C. P. Jopling discovered them in Furness in 1843. M. Bouchard Chantereaux, who met with them in the Bois des Roches, in the Bas Boulonnais, has published a memoir on the subject, the result of many years observation, to which I shall have occasion again to refer. Mr. Pengelly met with them in many localities in the Torbay district. They were also found on Birkrigg Common by Miss E Hodgson, of Ulverston, and were described by her in vol. vii of The Geologist, p. 42.