Geological Society 67 



A letter was then read from H. T. De la Beche, Esq., F.G.S., 

 and addressed to the President, on the Anthracite found near 

 Biddeford in North Devon. 



Mr. De la Beche says, the anthracite occurs along a strip of 

 country about thirteen miles in length from east to west and about 

 three quarters of a mile in breadth from north to south. It com- 

 mences eastward at Hawkridge Woods on the banks of the Taw, 

 and extends westward to Greencliff in Biddeford Bay, where the 

 sea cuts off all further observation of its course in that direction. 

 On the opposite side of the bay, however, a very carbonaceous 

 slate is found in the cHfFs among the greatly contorted strata of 

 grauwacke between Clovelly and Hartland Point. There can be 

 little doubt, Mr. De la Beche observes, that this carbonaceous slate 

 belongs to the same system as the Biddeford beds, and thus it would 

 be extended about eleven miles still further westward, where the 

 sea again cuts it off. The anthracite between Hawkridge and 

 Greencliff has been extensively worked at various times, and at 

 the latter place is now worked for the sole supply of a limekiln. 

 The beds of anthracite do not occur precisely in the same line with 

 each other, so that one or two beds are not so far continuous, but 

 swell out in particular places, the maximum thickness not exceed- 

 ing 12 feet. 



The letter was accompanied by a collection of fossil plants, all 

 collected by Mr. De la Beche ; and he says there can be no question 

 that the shales, slates, sandstones, and anthracite, among which 

 they are found, belong to the grauwacke, the evidence being of the 

 most clear and satisfactory kind*. 



With regard to the position of these beds in the grauwacke of 

 Devon generally, it may be considered at about two thirds of the 

 whole, above that part where the grauwacke shades away into the 

 mica slate, chlorite slate, and other non-fossiliferous rocks of the 

 most southern part of Devon. It should, however, be observed that 

 the grauwacke of Devon and Somerset is not complete, and that 

 we nowhere can see what can be decidedly termed its upper por- 

 tions. After very diligent search, Mr.Dela Beche observes, he has 

 been unable to discover any of the interesting beds of the upper 

 grauwacke noticed by Mr. Murchison in Wales or the adjoining 

 English counties. On the north coast of Devon and its continua- 

 tion into Somersetshire, precisely where some traces of them should 

 be expected, older beds are brought up by contortion (Dunkeny 

 Beacon), and the other high land of the coast is formed of beds 

 apparently of the same age with those which extend from Hartland 

 to the eastward, a great trough being formed, supporting a body of 



* The plants have been examined by Prof. Lindley,and he has decided that 

 they are, as far as they can be determined, plants of the coal measures, viz. 

 Fecopteris lonchiticay Sphenopteris latifolia, Catamites cannceforviiSy As- 

 terophyllites resembling A. longifolia^ another species, which maybe A.ga- 

 lioidisy Cyperites bicamiata, and Lepidopht/lhim intermedium ; also frag- 

 ments apparently of Palm leaves, specimens of which Prof. Lindley states 

 he has received from Bolton. The most abundant plant was too imperfect 

 for its characters to be determined. 



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