350 Abstracts of Memoirs. 
the well-known Raised Beaches. This period, however, distinctly 
divides itself into three: first, or earliest, that in which the waves 
cut, in the semi-crystalline limestone and almost vertical beds of the 
harder kinds of slate, a series of approximately horizontal shelves, 
some of which, notwithstanding their subsequent waste, are still 
upwards of 60 feet broad ; secondly, that of the accumulation of the 
Beaches, which are made up of beds of gravel, succeeded at the 
higher levels by layers of fine sand, and in some cases terminated by 
what appears to be blown sand; and, thirdly, that in which the 
Beaches themselves were cut back into cliffs and shorn of much of 
their dimensions.—9th. Again the upward movement was resumed, 
and the entire district raised to an elevation of at least 40 feet 
ereater than at present. Whether or not this was followed by an 
intermittence, there is no evidence to show; nor is it possible to say 
how long was the time before the newly emerged district was occu- 
pied with large trees. It is certain that during a vast period, either 
of rest or of continued elevation, it was covered with a forest, in 
which the Ox, Red-deer, Boar, Horse, and Mammoth found food and 
shelter, and the débris of which furnished them with graves.—10th. 
From the analogy furnished by the preceding phenomena, it seems 
highly improbable that an upward movement would be exchanged 
for a downward one without an intermediate pause. On this point, 
however, there appears to be no direct evidence. All that can be 
affirmed positively is, that after the Forest-era the entire district 
was carried down from whatever had been its previous height until 
the base of the forest-ground was not less than 40 feet below the sea- 
level.—11th. Assuming that the subsidence just mentioned was the 
last movement the district has experienced, we are in possession of 
facts pointing to the conclusion that the commencement of the period 
of quiescence which followed dates far back from the present day, 
down to which it has continued. No sooner have the sea and land 
acquired a new relative level than the former attacks the latter and 
produces a new line of cliffs with their concomitant platforms. What- 
ever was the maximum elevation obtained by the forest-area, an 
addition to that amount must be made to the existing heights of 
all the higher level-deposits: thus, for example, if the whole of. 
Torbay to or beyond the five-fathom line was then dry land, the 
Raised Beaches, instead of 30, must have been 70 feet above the 
sea-level, and so on in all the other cases. As the works of Man 
remain in the Brixham Cave, which received its present contents at 
the time of the second upheaval, alluded to above, the human in- 
habitants of the area in question witnessed an Arctic flora in Devon- 
shire, saw engulfed rivers carry into caverns osseous deposits, and, 
in times much less ancient, they may have collected Shell-fish on the 
old sea-beaches, now 30 feet above the reach of the highest tide, 
and hunted the Mammoth in a forest over which our largest ships of 
war now ride at anchor. 
