324 A. R, Hunt — Geological Fhysics of the Shallow Seas. 



present, and may well also indicate glacial conditions. It is 

 extremely difficult to adjust the evidence of beaches, raised beaches, 

 caves, and other geological phenomena; but were it not for such 

 uncertainties geology would not possess the interest which it 

 certainly has. 



There are two periods of indefinite duration concerning whicli 

 the Kent's Cavern deposits are silent, viz,, the time between tlie 

 crystalline stalagmite and the advent of the hya?na, and the time 

 between the close of the granular stalagmite (synchronous with the 

 disappearance of h^ sena) and Neolithic and modern times. There 

 is also a good deal of inferential evidence from the molluscs found 

 in the cavern, including Venvs cliione and full-sized Pecten maximns, 

 but induction from those premises would most certainly be scouted 

 as merely speculative. More 's the pity! One thing is pretty sure, 

 and that is that neither the Torbay raised beaches nor Kent's Cavern 

 have been submerged since the era of the cave earth and of the cave 

 mammalia. At any rate, the evidence seems to preclude that 

 possibility. 



I have no desire to press my opinions on anyone, nor to contest 

 the opinions of anyone, but I have tried to keep these geological 

 physical problems alive in the hope that someone, some day, will 

 work them out. They are certainly worth the attempt. 



For more tljan thirty years I have seen from my house what is 

 perhaps the most intricate assemblage of beaches, raised beaches, 

 platforms, shelves, shore ledges, foreshores, submerged forests, and 

 drowned valleys that can be seen from any one spot in England. 

 I cannot forget them, for I cannot look out of the window without 

 having them actually or mentally before me. In the middle 

 distance is the limestone plateau of Daddy Hole Plain, a true 

 plane, not a peneplain; beyond the bay with its submerged plain 

 of many square milt^s, as flat as a billiard table, is the platform 

 or terrace of Berry Head, overhanging the shore ledge and raised- 

 beach near tlie old Naval Hospital, This terrace can be traced by 

 the eye as far as Galmpton Con)mon, where it serves for golf-links; 

 and beyond it is seen the drowned and partly silted-up valley of the 

 Dart, Following tlie line of the coast we cross the filled-up valley 

 at Goodrington, and passing the level and truncated headlands of 

 Koundham Head, Livermead Head, and Corbons Head, we leave the 

 submerged forest at Torre Abbey sands and the terrace of the 

 Waldon Hill, to leach the filled-up submerged valley of Fleet 

 Street, Torquay, With the mind's eye we can see, through the 

 intervening hills, the raised beaches at Hope's Nose and the 

 Thatcher Rock, and the higher platform of the Babbicombe Downs, 

 also useful as golf-links. By the same means we can visualize 

 the absolutely level 'continental shelf of the bottom of Torbay, 

 running out at right angles to, and falling rapidly into, the gentle 

 seaward slope of the Great West Bay, We also mentally take 

 note of Kent's Cavern and of the several caverns at Brixham. 

 Further inland we have the higher lands in which aerial erosion has 

 obscured any traces there may be of marine erosion. 



