By William Gowland, F.S.A., F.T.C. 



21 



Chippings of diabase were more abundant than those of any of 

 the other rocks ; there were, however, but few large pieces of it. 

 Sarsen, on the other hand, occurred most abundantly in lumps. 



In the excavations on the south-west side of the stone and in 

 VI. and Q, sarsen and diabase were always found together even in 

 the layer overlying the bed rock. On the north-east side diabase 

 chips were somewhat fewer, and pieces of sarsen occurred at lower 

 depths than they. 



The soft " fissile rock " is only represented now by the weathered 

 stump mentioned above, But this rock is so easily disintegrated 

 by the action of rain and frost that any stones consisting of it 

 would soon have been destroyed, and hence it may be that this 

 stump is all that is left of them. The amount of chippings would 

 seem to indicate that originally there were several, and it is just 

 possible that other stumps may exist below the ground. Their 

 absence may also be accounted for by their removal for utilitarian 

 purposes, when Stonehenge had lost its sacred character, in 

 preference to the other stones, owing to the ease with which they 

 could be worked. 



In all the excavations sarsen and diabase occurred in the largest 

 quantities. The other rocks were also distributed more or less 

 uniformly through most of the layers, but in very varying pro- 

 portions. 



Chippings of a hard compact rock, which cannot, as yet, be 

 referred to any of the existing stones, were also found, but only 

 in small quantities. 



It has been suggested that these chippings and lumps may be 

 those left by despoilers from the trimming of stones which they 

 removed. 



But if this were true, then they should only have occurred in 

 the surface layers, or at but little below them, and not at the 

 depths at which they were found. It may be remarked further 

 that the Excavation F at the side of the upright, No. 54, of the 

 south trilithon also shows this suggestion to be untenable, for here, 

 down to the depth examined, 4 feet below the turf, they were 

 found, together with large blocks, to form the chief material which 



