Kennard ^ Warren — Blown Sands, etc., Towan Sead. 19 



IV. — The Blown Sands and Associated Deposits of Towan Head, 

 NEAR Newquay, Cornwall. 



By A. Santer Kennard and S. Hazzledine "Warren, F.G.S. 



{Note. — The former author is responsible for the determination of the species _and 

 information relating to them ; the latter author, for the field notes and other parte of 

 the paper.] 



Introduction. 



AT Towan Head and in the cliffs of Fistral Bay, near Newquay, 

 there is seen, at a few feet above high-water mark, the remains of 

 the Pleistocene Raised Beach. This consists of pebbly beds associated 

 with ancient blown sands, sometimes of considerable thickness. 

 Above this series of deposits comes the Head or Eubble Drift, 

 formed during a greater elevation of the land.' These beds have 

 been fully described by many authors — De la Beche,^ W. A. E. 

 Ussher,^ Sir Joseph Prestwich,* and others. While capping the 

 Head and Raised Beach, and on the top of the cliff, there is a series 

 of more recent ^olian sandy beds. 



Inland from Fistral Bay the dunes of recent blown sand cover 

 a considerable area, but these are not discussed in the present 

 paper. Attention is here directed to the superficial deposits of 

 Towan Head. The dunes which cover the surface at Fistral Bay 

 are quite recent accumulations, and are, in fact, still in process of 

 formation, as the westerly winds from the Atlantic blow up the sand 

 left dry upon the present beach. The recent dunes extend to Towan 

 Head ; but there are other sands, beneath them in stratigraphical 

 position, yet still capping the Head, which are of greater antiquity, 

 and present certain points of interest. 



Mr. W. A. E. Ussher^ gives the following section of the cliff 

 toward the north end of Fistral Bay, near Towan Head : — 



feet. 



Eecent blown sand 3 



Sandy soil with angular fragments of slate ... ... ... ... 2 



[Head] Buff loam with angular stones and boulders ... ... ... 2 



[Pleistocene blown sand of the Eaised Beach] Buff sand ... ... 1 



[Eaised Beach] Coarse and fine gravel of quartz, dark grey grit, slate, 



and occasionally flint , . 4 



The ' sandy soil ' immediately above the Head is a representative 

 of the beds chiefly dealt with here. 



On the east side of the promontory of Towan Head, and close to 

 the lifeboat house, there is a quarry in the cliff which exposes 

 a section of these beds. At this spot the deposit consists of sand 

 about four feet in thickness, containing many land shells, together 



1 E. A. C. Godwin- Austen : Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, 1850, vol. vi, p. 94; 

 1851, vol. vii, pp. 121-126. 



- H. T. de la Beche : " Eeport on the Geology of Cornwall," etc., 1839, 

 p. 426, etc. 



3 W. A. E. Ussher, "The Post-Tertiary Geology of Cornwall " : Geol. Mag., 

 1879, Dec. II, Vol. VI, pp. 206-207. 



* J. Prestwich: Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, 1892, vol. xlviii, pp. 281-282. 



5 Geol. Mag., 1879, p. 206. 



