no DEVONIAN. 



2. TORQUAY. 



The slaty rocks, grits, sandstones, and associated limestones of 

 South Devon and Cornwall are so much broken up and disturbed, 

 compared to the equivalent beds in North Devon, that no such 

 continuous sequence can be traced. Large masses of granite and 

 many other rocks of igneous origin, intersect or protrude through 

 the ' killas ' or clay-slate of Cornwall and Devon ; while, as Mr. 

 Ussher has remarked in reference to this southern area, "at many 

 recurrent periods, the eruptive forces burst into activity, eating their 

 way through the sediments already thrown down, and showering 

 their ashes and cinders and scoriae upon those in process of 

 deposition." 



The Torquay district has been examined and described by many 

 geologists, including De la Beche,' Godwin-Austen,'^ and Dr. H. B. 

 HoU.^ More recently Mr. Arthur Champernowne, of Dartington 

 Hall, has surveyed in great detail a large area around Totnes, and 

 the minute acquaintance he has made with the eruptive as well as 

 the stratified rocks and their organic remains, entitles his views to 

 the utmost respect.* So many faults and flexures affect the beds 

 that it is no wonder that the opinions concerning the general 

 succession have been at variance. 



The Culm-measures in places near Chudleigh appear to rest 

 conformably on the Devonian Limestone,^ but this may be simply 

 a local conformity in stratification, for the observations of Mr. 

 Champernowne agree with those of Mr. Godwin-Austen and Dr. 

 Holl, in pointing to a considerable break between the formation 

 of the highest Devonian beds in this part of South Devon and the 

 Culm-measures. 



The promontory of Torquay and Babbacombe well shows the 

 great disturbances to which the Devonian beds have been subjected. 

 The cliflfs are for the most part abrupt and they must be studied by 

 the aid of a boat. In the quarry at Hope's Nose nearly horizontal 

 beds of Devonian Limestone may be seen resting on the upturned 

 edges of similar rock, in such a manner that a first glance would 

 seem to show an undoubted case of unconformity. This feature, 

 however, is the result of a fault acting on the disturbed beds of 

 limestone, and whose hade is inclined inwards from the face of 

 the quarry. The contortions throughout the Torquay district are 

 very great, and the faults are numerous. In some instances the 

 beds are clearly reversed, as Mr. Champernowne has pointed out.® 



The mass of limestone that extends from Lyndridge to near Kingsteignton dips 

 to the south-east at angles of from 20° to 30^. The boundary-line with the Culm- 



^ Report on the Geology of Cornwall, etc., 1839. 

 - T. G. S. (2), vi. 433. ^ Q. J. x.\iv. 400. 



* G. Mag. 1878, p. 193 ; 1879, p. 125 ; P. Geol. Assoc, viii. 442, 458. 

 s C. Reid, G. Mag. 1877, pp. 454, 457. 



® Trans. Devon Assoc, for 1S74. See also G. Mag. 1S77, p. 453, and 1884, 

 p. 524. 



