532 BEPOET — 1882. 



(Upper Bala slate series). The overlying rather dark shaly slates (5), with some 

 rab, presenting the gradual incoming of the Aberystwyth grits, are passage beds of 

 Caradoc — Llandovery age. 



The grits of Llangrannog are the same as those of Aberystwj'th ( Aberi'stwyth 

 grits), and the overlying slates with worm-like markings are our ' Metalliferous 

 slate series ' which belong to the same great rock group. 



There is no evidence of any stratigi'aphical break in the rock groups of South 

 Cardiganshire from the Llandeilo to the Llandovery period inclusive, but the whole 

 series appears perfectly continuous. 



The Aberystwyth grits are less developed here than further north, this being- 

 near tlie line of their southerly disappearance by dying out. 



Here then, as in North Wales (I)ovey Valley), we find a considerable series of 

 Upper Bala slates passing up into the Llandovery group. It has been proved 

 elsewhere that the Cardiganshire rock group lies conformably under the Tarannon 

 shale.s, and here we find its inferior limits equallj' ill-defined, gradually passing 

 down into a great series of imperfect slate-rocks which belong to the Upper Bala 

 group. 



Thus we find no great physical break, but perfect continuity amongst the 

 Silurian and Cambrian rocks of South Wales. 



FBIDAY, AUGUST 25. 



The following Papers and Reports were read : — 



1. On the Post-Miocene Deposits of the Boveu Basin, South Devon, 

 By W. PengellV, FB.S., F.G.S. 



The deposits of the Bovey Basin stretch in a south-easterlj' direction for about 

 nine miles from tlie neighbourhood of the little town of Bovey Tracey to that of 

 Kingskerswell. The river Teign ilows through the area for about five miles, and 

 its tributary, the Bovey, for about three miles. Investigations carried on in 1S60-1 

 showed that, near the north-western end of the basin, the deposits consisted of 

 three distinct groups, the lowermost being a group of lignites, clays, and sands ; on 

 which lay uncouformably an accumulation termed ' Head,' consisting of clay and 

 sand, with very numerous angular and subangular stones ; on wliich again lay the 

 uppermost group of clays and sands, with renuiins of tlie dwarf birch (Betula 

 nana). The lignite group is admitted on all liauds to be of Lower Miocene or 

 Upper Eocene age ; the Betula nana clays belong with equal certainty to early post- 

 glacial times, when a flora now confined to Arctic and Alpine habitats flourished 

 in South Devon ; whilst the intermediate Head, necessarily of intermediate age, is 

 believed by most observers to be of glacial age and origin. 



Since 1861 a human figure carved in wood, potsherds, and a bronze spearhead, 

 have been met with in various parts of the Head, all near tlie Teign, and below its 

 ordinary level; whilst in 1881 a canoe, formed by hollowing out a large tree, and 

 nine feet long, was found thirty feet below the surface ; that is to say, it lay twenty 

 feet deep in clay, over which was the Head, liaving a depth of ten feet. Its site was 

 twenty feet above the level of the highest known Hood-waters of the Bovey, the 

 nearest river, and eighty feet above spring-tide highwater. 



In speculating on the chronology of the ' finds,' tlie writer stated that there 

 was historical proof that there had been no change of level within the area since 

 the Norman Conquest, and if the Fussc-jca;/ be a Roman work, none since the 

 Roman occupation He was of opinion that the hypothesis of the rivers having, in 

 times of flood, dislodged and redeposited portions of the Head, and incorporated 

 comparatively modern objects, was sufficient to account for the presence of the 

 wooden figure, the potsherds, and the spearhead ; but that the canoe, from its great 

 depth in the clay, i]i which stones had never been found, belonged to a difl'erent 



