Inkermann Rogers — Fossil Fishes from, North Devon. 101 



referred to by Professor J. Phillips in his Palaozoic Fossils, 1 

 published in 1841, as having been discovered at Baggy Point. 



On the shore at Woolacombe Sands, about a quarter of a mile 

 south of Woolacombe, an isolated patch of Pickwell Down sandstones 

 and shale, dipping to the south at an angle of 60°, projects seaward 

 from the foot of the sand-dunes. This outcrop, which is locally 

 known as Mill Rock, measures 60 feet by 50 feet, and rises from 

 6 to 7 feet above the level of the tidal sands. I have not seen it 

 myself, but Mr. J. G. Hamling, F.G.S., who has visited the spot, 

 informs me that the exposure is fragmentary and covered by "head". 

 In the year 1913 Dr. Thomas Young, of Colyton, then of Woolacombe, 

 called my attention to there being an igneous vein about 2 inches 

 thick in Mill Rock. I obtained a sample of it and recognized it as 

 volcanic tuff. Eastward the vein is met with in a rock cutting 

 leading to a large quarry opposite Fox Hunter's Inn on the Braunton 

 road, three miles from Woolacombe. Here it is 18 inches in 

 thickness and badly weathered. Three miles still further eastward 

 it is well exposed in an old quarry a little south of Pittadon. Here 

 the bed is 25 feet thick, fully crystalline, and much weathered. 

 Mr. Ussher, 2 and also T. M. Hall, 2 refer to it as the Pittadon felsite. 

 It extends to Pratton Fleming, another six miles eastward. Here 

 I have not seen it myself, but Mr. Hamling, F.G.S., who has, 

 informs me that it is fragmentary and probably not more than two 

 or three inches in thickness. 



Recently (May, 1918) I polished a piece of the tuff from Mill 

 Rock. On closely examining it I detected to my surprise what 

 appeared to be fish-remains and a tooth, whereupon I determined to 

 obtain further samples of the rock. The result was I found not only 

 that there were fish remains in the tuff, but that fragments of bones 

 and teeth could be observed in almost every part of Mill Rock. One 

 lenticle of redeposited tuff mingled with shale was discovered 

 containing several scales, portions of scales, and bone plates, as well 

 as many small bones. These proved to be the remains of typical 

 Upper Devonian fishes — Holonema, Bothriolepis, Holoptychius, 

 Polyplocodus. All the specimens were forwarded to Dr. A. Smith 

 Woodward, F.R.S., for examination, and he has kindly sent me 

 the subjoined report. 



1 J. Phillips, Figures and Descriptions of the Palceozoic Fossils of Cornwall 

 and Devon and West Somerset, p. 133, 1841. See also Eev. D. Williams, 

 "On the Killas Group of Cornwall and Devon": Trans. Roy. Geol. Soc. 

 Cornwall, vol. vi, pp. 122-38, 1843; K. Etheridge, "On the Physical Structure 

 of West Somerset and North Devon " : Q.J.G.S., 1867, p. 156 ; W. Pengelly, 

 " The History of the Discovery of Fossil Fish in the Devonian Rocks of Devon 

 and Cornwall": Trans. Devon Assoc, vol. ii, pt. ii, p. 423, 1868; J. G 

 Hamling, " Recently Discovered Fossils from the Lower and Upper Devonian 

 Beds of North Devon": ibid., vol. xl, pp. 276-80, 1908; " Excursion to 

 North Devon, Easter, 1910 " : Proc. Geol. Assoc, vol. xxi, pt. ix, 1910. 



2 W. A. E. "Ussher, " On the Palaeozoic Rocks of West Somerset and North 

 Devon": Proc. Som. Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc, 1879, and "Cornwall, 

 Devon, and Somerset" : Jubilee Volume Geol. Assoc, 1910, p. 869; T. M. 

 Hall, " Geology of the Ilfracombe Coast-line " : Trans. Devon Assoc, vol. xi, 

 p. 278, 1879. 



