142 PAPERS, ETC. 
the slates and rocks, as exhibited in the cliffs between 
Minehead and Hurlstone Point, as well as elsewhere, 
clearly prove that the volcanie or other agency to which 
they are to be referred acted upon the deposit while it was 
yet in a plastic state, for the curve line is unbroken, and 
the strata present no such fractures, as would necessarily 
result from similar action on rocks which had already 
become hardened. That the period during which the de- 
posit took place was one of great volcanic disturbance is 
evident from the general character of the stratification ; 
and the elevated position and irregular outline of the dis- 
trict equally prove that by some great convulsion of 
nature the sea-beds became changed into mountain heights, 
and the waters of the ocean were thrown into new chan- 
nels. 
Then began, in the bottom of this new sea, a new 
geological formation. From the manner in which the new 
red sand-stone series rests upon the Devonian rocks in 
various parts of conjunction both on the Quantocks and 
the Brendon Hills,* it is clear that they are the deposit of 
an ocean whose margin, in this neishbourhood at least, was 
the uplifted distriet of the Devonian series. At that time 
— (and I would observe in passing that when the geologist 
speaks of time, he does not count by years, but by ages 
and cycles of ages, far exceeding the power of human 
computation)—at that time, it is evident that what are 
now the Quantock Hills was an island lying off shore, 
separated from the main land by the trough or channel, 
now indicated by the red sand-stone rocks and marls of 
the valley running from Williton into Taunton Deane. 
'The hill on which Cunnegar Tower stands was likewise 
* A beautiful instance of conjunction occurs in the lane leading from 
Withycombe to the Fire-beacon. 
ee A 
