442 EOCENE. 



yielding- the plant-remains ; and they are exposed in the cliffs from 

 Poole Harbour to beyond Bournemouth. 



Mr. J. S. Gardner places the Bournemouth freshwater series in 

 the Middle Bagshot group, drawing the line between these and 

 the Lower Bagshot Beds above the pipe-clays of Corfe, Studland and 

 Alum Bay, on account of the dissimilarity of the floras ; none of 

 the prevailing types, familiar at Alum Bay, being found at Bourne- 

 mouth. The Bournemouth flora passes upwards into the Oligocene 

 flora ; ' and it is considered by Mr. Gardner to be on the same 

 horizon as that of the Bovey Tracey Beds. The Lower Bagshot 

 Sands of Studland are brighter than the sands at a higher level in 

 the Bournemouth freshwater series ; they resemble the Alum Bay 

 sands, and contain similar plant-remains in the pipe-clays. 

 Sections of variously-coloured sands and pottery-clays with much 

 ironstone have been exposed in the railway-cuttings between 

 Wareham and Corfe Castle. (See also Fig. i, p. i, Section on the 

 Frome, Stoborough, South of Wareham ; and Fig. 54, p. 347.) 



Bovey Tracey Beds. — The celebrated clays and lignite-beds of 

 Bovey Tracey, near Newton Abbot, in Devonshire, have been long 

 known, for the 'Bovey Coal' has been worked since 1714.^ 



The Bovey Beds comprise two divisions, the lignite-beds which 

 are developed at Bovey Tracey, and the clay-beds which are so 

 largely worked near Kingsteignton and Newton Abbot. Sands 

 are found at various horizons in the series, and pea-like grains of 

 quartz sometimes occur in the clay. 



The exact relations between these two divisions cannot readily 

 be ascertained, for the lignite-beds are cut oft" by a fault (de- 

 termined by Mr. John Divett), where the vertical displacement is 

 estimated at 100 feet ; but probably the lignites form the upper series 

 above the clays. The former are developed over a small area 

 south-east of Bovey Tracey ; and they have been exposed at Aller, 

 near Newton Abbot. ^ The beds opened up at Bovey (according to 

 Mr. Pengelly) are as follows : — 



Feet. Ins. 

 ' Head,' superficial drift (7 ft. 6 in.) 



Plastic clay 2 6 



Quartzose sand 6 3 



Clays and lignites 5 1 1 



Sand 2 o 



Clay 2 o 



Sand and fine conglomerate O 8 



Clays and lignites 33 10 



Quartzose sand with lenticular patches of clay 11 I 



Clay and lignites 53 4 



117 7 



A boring made east of the fault showed upwards of 80 feet of 



' J. S. Gardner, P. Geol. Assoc, v. 51, viii. 305 ; Q. J. xxxviii. 3; G. Mag. 

 1882, p. 470 ; see also G. Maw, G. Mag. 1868, p. 74. 

 ~ Rev. Jeremiah Milles, Phil. Trans. (,1745), li. 534, 941. 

 ^ J. H. Key, Q. J. xviii. 9. 



