42 



TITE GEOLOGIST. 



gation, another, devoted to the geographical extent at each horizon 

 of the same species, should also be carried on. 



In the districts affected by the late earthquake the directions so 

 intelligently given by Mr. Mallet might be taken as the guide to 

 local inquiry, and many details accumulated. 



More especially we would urge that as much impetus as possible 

 should be given to fossil botany. It is a department sadly neglected, 

 and nevertheless most useful and most important in the acquire- 

 ment of a correct knowledge of the ancient history of our planet. 

 In the mining districts further experiments on internal heat are 

 greatly to be desired. 



We do not submit to the Provincial Societies the organization of 

 special subjects for investigation during these excursions, but the de- 

 tailing to the members of certain subjects for individual study and 

 attention, and to get from the working members who take such sub- 

 jects up reports of their progress, and the details of the most interest- 

 ing examples and results ; and then upon these reports to select the 

 places for, and the routes of excursions, making the principal or 

 most competent of the working members the duces on these occasions. 

 We think that by such preliminary steps the excursions would be 

 made much more instructive, more pleasurable, and certainly more 

 beneficial to science. 



ON HELIX, AND PERFORATED LIMESTONE. 

 By Miss E. Hodgson. 



A few months ago I sent to the British Museum a block of moun- 

 tain limestone, perforated into deep cells by mollusks. It was met 

 with on a limestone ridge three miles south-west of Ulverston, and 

 first attracted notice by being brought to town to be employed for 

 building purposes. 



The perforations were found to be on the under-side of a projecting 

 ledge, and were large enough for the fingers to be introduced up- 

 wards to the depth, in some, of three inches, the diameter being 

 about seven-eighths of an inch. They were inhabited, at the time 

 of the discovery (August), by the land-snails Helix nemoralis and 

 Helix concinna. 



Mr. Woodward, on receiving the stone, very kindly sent for my 

 perusal a 'Memoir on Perforations by Helices in the Calcareous 

 Rocks of the Boulonnais,' by M. Bouchard-Chantereaux. In this 

 memoir the author states his belief that the cells are the work of 



