ON Tlli!: EltltATlC BLOCKS OF ENGLAND, WALES, AND IRELAND. 117 



about 5 miles, as tlie crow flies, S.W. from Totnes, a rounded block of 

 'greenstone.' It measured 4'25 x 2o x 25 feet, and, hence, contained 

 nearly a cubic yard of stone, and must have weighed fully 175 ton. It 

 was without traces of polish or scratches. 



We had previously, and within the same hour, visited a qaarry in a 

 mass of igneous rock coloured as greenstone in the map of the Geological 

 Survey. This mass is represented as extending nearly east and west for 

 a distance of 17 mile, and having a maximum breadth of '25 mile. The 

 boulder, apparently of the same kind of rock, was upwards of '5 mile due 

 north from the nearest point of this mass. The map, however, indicates 

 another, but smaller, mass of greenstone about the same distance north 

 of the boulder. 



V. — The Limestone Block in the parish of Stoke-in-Teign-Head, 



South Devon. 



Having been informed by Dr. Midgley Cash, of Torquay, that he 

 had obsei'ved a large stone in the parish of Stoke-in-Teign-Head, and near 

 the road from Torquay to Teignmouth, I proceeded to inspect it. The block 

 is a mass of limestone, lying on the road to Upper Gable, about 60 paces 

 west of the Torquay and Teignmouth road, and is apparently used as a 

 step by persons passing over the southern hedge into the adjacent field. 



It may be described as wedge-shaped, with the angles and edges 

 rounded. Each triangular face measures 3 X 3 x 1*75 foot, whilst the 

 depth or thickness is 1"5 foot ; so that it contains about 3 '75 cubic feet, 

 and weighs about 700 lbs., taking the specific gravity at 2"95.' 



The extensive limestone quarries of Barton and Lummaton, in the 

 parish of St. Mary Church, not more, as the crow flies, than 1'25 mile 

 towards S.S.W., cause one to feel very sceptical as to the claims of this 

 mass to the dignity of an Erratic Block. Nevertheless, it appears desir- 

 able to recoi'd its existence. 



The WhitaJcers in the parish of Tamerton Foliot in South-western Devon. 



On June 12, 1880, I accepted the invitation of Mr. F. E. Fox, B.A., 

 F.R.G.S., of Uplands, in the parish of Tamerton Foliot, in the south- 

 western corner of Devonshire, to inspect the ' Whitakers ' abounding on 

 his property. - 



The term ' Whitaker ' is a provincialism. Mr. W. H. Marshall, in his 

 ' Rural Economy of the West of England,' 1796, says, ' Intermixed with 

 the soil, and often united with fragments of slate-rock, is found, in blocks 

 and fragments of various sizes, a species of crystal or quartz — provincially 

 whittal-er — which in colour is mostly white, sometimes tinged with red 

 or rust colour' (i. 16). 



The term is in use about Ashburton, and according to Mr. Rock's 

 * Jim and Nell,' written in the dialect of North Devon, about Barnstaple 

 also. It occurs in ' Halliwell,' where it is defined as ' a species of quartz,' 

 but it is not assigned to any special localitj'. 



Uplands is from a quarter to half a mile west of the road from Ply- 

 mouth to Tavistock, and about 4 miles from the former town. 



The blocks in a small plantation on the crest of the hill almost adja- 

 cent to Mr. Fox's house were perhaps the most important group I saw ; 

 for though, as I was told, a large number had been taken thence for 

 ' See Ency. Brit., 8th edit. 1856, xii. 88. 



