By William Gowland, F.S.A., F.LC. 



47 



Note on ttje Nature antf ©rtgm of tfje EocMragments foimti 

 in tjje (fExcabatums matte at Stonefjenge tig |Hr. ©ofolanti 



ttl \90\. B V Professor J. W. Judd, C.B., LL.D.,F.R.S. i FGX 



From the large collection of fragments which were submitted to 

 me by Mr. Gowland, types of all the different rocks represented 

 were selected, and thin sections having been made from them in 

 the Geological Laboratory of the Eoyal College of Science, they 

 were studied microscopically. 



Before proceeding to detail the results of these studies, it may 

 be well to state what had previously been done in the way of de- 

 termining the exact nature of the materials employed by the 

 builders of Stonehenge. 



Sir K. C. Hoare, when writing his Ancient Wiltshire (1812 — 20), 

 appears to have sent to Mr. James Sowerby a small specimen of 

 each of the stones forming the monument of Stonehenge. Sowerby 

 described these fragments as falling into the following classes : i. 

 "Pine-grained species of siliceous sandstone." ii. "An aggregate 

 of quartz, feldspar, chlorite, and hornblende" (twenty-six in number), 

 iii. One "is a siliceous schist." iv. Three others " are hornstone 

 with small specks of feldspar and pyrites." v. " The altar stone is 

 a micaceous fine-grained sand-stone." 1 



In 1833 the Kev. W. D. Conybeare stated that " the smaller 

 circles of Stonehenge consist of a variety of greenstone rock." 2 



Professor John Phillips in 1858 referred to Wales, Cornwall, 

 and the elvans or greenstone dykes near Dartmoor as possible 

 sources from which the " greenstones " of Stonehenge may have 



1 Sir K. C. Hoare, Ancient History of South Wiltshire, 149, 150. Cf. 

 Wiltshire Archceological and Natural History Magazine, xvi. 69, 70. 



2 Gentleman s Magazine, ciii., pt. ii., 452-454. 



