The Ocean World (1872) describes marine borings in the marble at the site it calls the Temple of Serapis. Its clue is the work of stone-boring molluscs: according to the book, they could excavate these marks only while the marble was immersed in seawater.

When described, the marks stood above water. Citing Lyell, the author interpreted them as evidence that the columns had once been submerged and were later raised, a coastline’s history, read from damage on stone.

The holes that remembered a sunken coastline

The book’s Temple of Serapis plate accompanies an argument about marine borings in its columns. The marks are presented as evidence of immersion and subsequent elevation. PDF 342–344.

The accompanying Pholas papyracea figure belongs to the book’s discussion of shells that bore into stone. It introduces the kind of biological trace used in the columns argument. PDF 340.

The holes that remembered a sunken coastline

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