9146 Mollusks. 
Rock-boring Snails ; Correspondence between the late Dr. Buck- 
land and the late Mr. William Baker. Communicated by the 
late THomas Cuiark, of Bridgwater. 
[Ir is my mournful duty to record the death of Thomas Clark, whose 
love of Natural History and zeal for the promotion of the Science were 
only equalled by his amiable qualities as a man, and the unwearying 
readiness and kindness with which he communicated his varied know- 
ledge, even to the end of his long and useful life. It will be seen that 
so lately as the 16th of May he was still pursuing the interesting 
inquiry which forms the subject of this memoir. He was taken ill 
shortly after this excursion, and breathed his last on the 29th,—in 
peace with all men. In Thomas Clark I have lost a true friend: one of 
that cherished few who know not how to change.—Edward Newman). 
The notices which have recently appeared in the ‘ Zoologist’ (Zool. 
8982 and 9012), of perforations in stone made apparently by some 
species of snail, have reminded me that this subject had the attention 
of the late William Baker, of Bridgwater, more than twenty years 
ago, as well as of the late Professor Buckland and some others. I 
well remember William Baker telling me of his observing the perforated 
stone on Cannington Park, an isolated hill of mountain limestone, 
about four miles north-west of Bridgwater, and his decided opinion 
that the perforations were the work of the snails. I have been obliged 
by one of his daughters with his correspondence on the subject, with 
permission to make use of extracts from the various letters. I have 
made free use of this permission, and [ send with this note the extracts 
I have made, hoping they may be of sufficient interest to appear in 
the ‘ Zoologist.’ 
The snail to which the perforations are attributed, principally at 
least, is the common large snail, Helix aspersa of Turton’s ‘ Manual,’ 
or H. hortensis of his ‘ Conchological Dictionary.’ William Baker, 
in these extracts, has given both these names to the same species ; he 
does not by H. hortensis mean the hortensis of Lister, Montagu and 
others. From the interesting paper in the ‘ Zoologist ’ (Zool. 9012), 
on the “ Boring Snail of the Bois des Roches,” by the Rev. Alfred 
Merle Norman, M.A., it appears that M. Bouchard-Chatereaux, in his 
treatise on the subject, tells us that the snail in question is Helix hor- 
tensis. Is it not probable that by this name he also means the H. 
aspersa of Tuiton’s ‘Manual’? If so, Professor Buckland is no doubt 
