146 Soimrd Fox — Some Devonian Fossils 



To the west of Com Head, in slaty boulders on the beach and in 

 the clifFs, small branching corals, belonging to Fachjpora, and 

 crinoidal fragments are occasionally met with. 



On the south side of Pentire Point, and immediately west of 

 Pentire Haven, there are several caves, floored with bright shingle, 

 known as the ' Gravel Caverns.' Seaward of these caves there are 

 three large masses of conglomerate conspicuous from the bright 

 pebbles of which they are largely composed, and beyond these 

 seawards several beds of the same kind of rock may be seen when 

 storms have partially removed the loose beach material which 

 usually covers them. Another bed of this rock is also visible, 

 forming a ledge at the base of the cliff north of the Gravel Caverns 

 towards Pentire Point. The conglomerates, and the slates in 

 contact with them, contain fragments of fossil wood, branching 

 coral, Fachypora sp., crinoidal joints, Cardiola retrostriata, Orthoceras 

 or Bactrites, and small Goniatites. The mollusean remains are 

 usually pyritized. 



From Pentire Haven we pass southward for some miles, coasting 

 the cliffs of Pentire Glaze Haven, Polzeath, Trebetheric Point, and 

 Daymer Bay, till we reach the igneous rocks of Bray Hill. The 

 cliffs are composed of beautifully banded, purple, green, gi'ey, and 

 buff slates which De la Beche ' classed in error with the variegated 

 Lower Devonian slates of Watergate Bay, further to the south. No 

 fossils have as yet been met with in these northern variegated slates. 



The village of Rock, to which the ferry-boat from Padstow plies, 

 is at the northern boundary of a range of shore-line which extends 

 in a south-easterly and easterly direction, forming the north bank 

 of the Camel, as far as Trewornan at the eastern corner of 

 St. Minver parish. Along this shore beds of slate, limestone, and 

 various igneous rocks, including volcanic lavas and tuffs, are 

 exposed. The slates are very strongly cleaved, so that it is difficult 

 oftentimes to distinguish bedding and cleavage and to determine 

 their strike. In places they are very fossiliferous, and not in- 

 frequently the fossils are in better preservation than those hitherto 

 found in the rocks south of the Camel. This fossiliferous coast area 

 may be considered more conveniently in the following divisions : — 



1. Porthilhj Cove, i.e. from Book to Porthilhj Point. 



Some of the slates contain numerous specimens of minute Styliola, 

 whilst in other slates of a blue or brown colour, in the neiglibourhood 

 of igneous rocks, cup-corals and crinoidal remains are present, but 

 they are very poorly preserved. 



2. Porthilhj Point to Gentle Jane or Cant Hill. 



In the low cliffs south of Porthilly Point there are black nodules 

 containing fragments of Conularia, and beyond these, in a series of 

 old slate quarries, cup-corals, crinoidal remains, Styliola, and casts 

 of small doubtful Brachiopods or Lamellibranchs are present. Casts 



' Eeport on tlie Geo'ogy of Coruwall, etc., p. 91. 



