I 



ON THE ERRATIC BLOCKS OF ENGLAND, WALES, AND IRELAND. 115 



There is a mass of greenstone figured on the map of the Geological 

 Survey 2*6 miles long and "6 mile in breadth, having its longest axis in 

 an E. and W. direction, and extending from due north of Aveton Gifford 

 to a point about a mile W.N.W. of Kingston, where it makes its nearest 

 approach to the village. 



III. — The Blocks of Quartzite in the Parishes of Diptford and Morleigh, 



South Devon. 



On Mai-ch 27, 1879, Mr. Paige-Browne, of Great Englebourne, near 

 Totnes, wrote informing me that in a retired vale in the parish of Dipt- 

 ford he had recently found a ' clatter ' of large stones, apparently quartzose, 

 about two or three feet across, lying on moorish soil, and quite unlike the 

 slaty rocks of the neighbourhood. They were very hard, and were broken 

 up for the roads. 



On October 3 we proceeded together to the immediate neighbourhood 

 of Cleve farm-house, where Mr. Paige-Browne had observed the ' clatter.' 

 Measured as the crow flies, the house is about 2"5 miles S.S.E. from Dipt- 

 ford village or ' church town,' and about 5 miles S.W. from Totnes. 

 Adjacent to it, and on the north side, is an orchard ; and on the north of 

 that, a piece of waste marshy land bounded on the west by a small name- 

 less stream, which divides it from a small wood or copse, and on the east 

 by a parish road. This patch of marshy land, measuring not more than 

 100 feet from east to west, slopes for about 300 feet towards the north, 

 where it enters a transverse valley, through which another small stream 

 flows. On this waste land were the stones we had gone to see. They ex- 

 tended from the orchard hedge almost, but not quite, to the transverse 

 valley ; were half-buried in the soil ; and it was obvious, from the number 

 of large recent-looking pits which presented themselves, that many had 

 been removed within a few weeks. Nevertheless, there was still a crowd 

 of blocks, all of a very fine-grained compact quartzite, of a light gTey or 

 drab colour, many of them having quartz veins, and all utterly unlike the 

 slaty rocks of the district. Most of them were subangular ; some almost 

 perfectly angular ; whilst one was pretty well rounded. One, of ordinary 

 size, measured 3 x 2'5 x 2'5 feet, whilst another, perhaps the largest of the 

 series, was 5 X 2'5 x 2'5 feet. The smaller of the two must have weighed 

 upwards of a ton, and the larger fully two tons. There were no such 

 blocks in either of the small streams already mentioned, but their beds 

 were in places covered with small stones derived undoubtedly fi-om the 

 same parent rock, and none of them were more than from 3 to 4 inches in 

 length. 



Mr. S. Jackson, of Cleve, informed us that within the last five years 

 many scores of cartloads had been taken out of the piece of waste ground 

 on which we were standing, for road-repairs ; and he was of opinion that 

 the same practice had obtained long before his time. We had observed, 

 moreover, that corresponding blocks had been largely used in building 

 rough walls and fences in the district. 



Mr. Jackson also informed us that crowds of precisely similar blocks 

 existed in various parts of the neighbourhood, and that a bed of rock of 

 the same character was to be seen in situ in a quarry on Hannamoors, in 

 the adjacent parish of Morleigh. 



Blocks proved to be very numerous in the orchard at Cleve already 

 mentioned, and Mr. Jackson stated that his experience led him to suspect 



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