536 NOTES ON THE PHYSICAL CONDITIONS EXISTING 



A dredging obtained off Blackpool, where the beach is of sand, showed 

 that other materials were present in the deeper waters. It is well 

 known that the sand of the beach rests on a clay bottom, which is 

 frequently uncovered by storms. At the eastern corner, in five fathoms 

 of water, this clay was found free of sand, but contained small pebbles 

 similar to those on the beach at Hallsands. These pebbles were well 

 rounded, showing that they must have travelled about a good deal until 

 trapped in the clay. 



Apart from the beach the coarsest sand in Start Bay is to be found 

 along the margins of the Skerries Bank. Samples obtained there after a 

 gale from the east on the 4th February, 1902, showed that the material 

 varied from coarse gravel to fine sand, stones being absent, and silt 

 practically so (Tables I. and II., Samples ii.-vi.).* Of five samples taken 

 the coarsest was 4*760 on the average, or between coarse sand and tine 

 gravel, whilst the finest was 6'049, i.e. medium sand. The finest ma- 

 terial obtained on that date was 6"86 on the average, i.e. almost entirely 

 fine sand (Sample vii.), and this was got, not on the Skerries Bank, but 

 half a mile from the shore between Hallsands and Beesands. In the 

 summer and autumn, however, the fine sand is found on the top of the 

 Skerries Bank, and the easterly gale is responsible for its having been 

 found within the bay near the shore. 



Off Teignmouth Bay, again, we find a peculiar distribution of the 

 bottom-soil. From Hope's Nose to off Teignmouth there is a stretch 

 of hard ground on which oysters are fairly abundant. As showing the 

 trend of the current in Teignmouth Bay, it may be mentioned that the 

 empty shells congregate in masses behind the Orestone on the Torbay 

 side. Outside this hard though muddy ground, there is a long shelving 

 bank, which the Brixham fishermen call the "Ledcje." This extends 

 out in an easterly direction, and has several patches of rocks and coarse 

 gravel. On the inner side of the oyster ground lies a stretch of muddy 

 ground, which, within six fathoms, gives place to sand. The ground on 

 the northern portion of the bay is very variable throughout the year. 

 When first worked over during the autumn of 1901, it was a stretch of 

 uniform sand from off Teignmouth to the fairway buoy off Exmouth ; 

 but in the spring of 1902 the sand was swept away, and a bed of large 

 stones running out from Clerk Rock to over a mile from the shore was 

 laid bare. This bed was still uncovered in July, 1902. 



It only remains now to consider the relations between the tides 

 and currents on the one hand, and the bottom-soil on the other. The 

 effect of storms is to disturb the actual condition of things, but with 

 fairly regular currents the tendency of soil is to take up a state of 



• The grading of the soil is as given by E. J. Allen, "On the Fauna and Bottom- 

 deposits near the Thirty- fathom Line from the Eddystone to Start Point" (Jour. M. B. A., 

 vol. V. p. 378). 



