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Devonian Fossils from the Sandstones on the N.E. of the Quantocks. 

 By Rev. H. H. Winwood, M.A., F.G.S. Read Dec. 11, 1872. 



Facts are to most of us dry things, and geological facts are 

 perhaps to the uninitiated the dryest of the dry. How then am I 

 to dress up the record of the few facts that I have to present to you 

 this evening in such a way as to gain your attention for a short 

 half hour ? I will do my best, and if I can succeed in stirring up 

 an interest in the pursuit to which some of the pleasantest hours 

 of my life are due, I shall be amply rewarded. 



Premising in the first place that the Quantock Hills are a some- 

 what terra incognita to many, if not most of you (as they were to 

 me till recently), let me say a few words as to their distinguishing 

 features. Many a traveller, as he is rapidly whirled along the 

 Bristol and Exeter Railway to some Devonshire watering place in 

 pursuit of health and sea breezes, passes by those blue hills, which 

 on approaching the Bridgwater Station he sees swelling away roll 

 upon roll towards the northern horizon, unconscious of their inte- 

 resting associations. He may have the curiosity, perchance, to 

 enquire their name; but the answer — "Quantocks" — conveys to 

 him no idea of the beauties embosomed amidst the swells of 

 that gently undulating ridge. Ranging across West Somerset 

 from Quantocks Head or St. Audi-ies on the N.W., to West 

 Monckton on the S.E., seamed with romantic " coombs," which 

 generally run at right angles to the shore, they are twelve miles 

 long by about four or five miles broad. Though not remark- 

 able for elevation yet owing to their rising directly out of the 

 surrounding plain at a height averaging from 1000 to 1100 feet 

 they give very extensive and charming views on all sides. The 

 three culminating points are Wills Neck 1270 feet, Cothelstone 

 Beacon 1066 feet, Daneshorough, or Doweshorough, 1022 feet. 



It is almost impossible here to help making a digression, and 

 taking my mental stand on Danesborough Camp or Wills-neck, 

 to review in thought the joys of a summer's afternoon upon 

 that " speculative height," when nothing disturbs the still air 

 around, save the cracking of the furze pods in the summer 



