Dr. Alexander Irving — The Trias of Devonshire. 171 



following note (transcribed from my notebook) made on the spot in 

 September, 1887 :— 



" Escarpment of the Sid. — Massive false-bedded sandstones ; inter- 

 calated marly beds, very strongly false-bedded and brecciated 

 (mainly with indurated fragments of red marl). Just east of the 

 Sid [in the coast-section] the same (marls more developed witb 

 pale-green layers) ; next sandstone of pale-grey colour (though 

 reddened on the cliff-face by rain-wash) containing angular frag- 

 ments of dark-red marl, the surfaces of these being grey, from the 

 leaching out of the irony colouring matter." 



Here we have a record surely of evidence indicating the gradual 

 transition from shallower to deeper water at the time of deposition' 

 of the beds in question. These more or less brecciated false-bedded 

 sandstones I take to be on the same horizon as those near the base 

 of High Peak Hill, where in the Lade Kock they visibly underlie 

 the more compact and massively bedded sandstones, so characteristic 

 of the Lower Keuper, both in the Devon sections and in the Midlands 

 (see paper A, pp. 150,^ 151), and are in one or two places bored 

 through by the surf. The same succession may be observed at 

 Badfield's Point, beyond which, as we follow the coastline (trending 

 in a S.S.W. direction), these irregularly bedded soft sandstones form 



Section across the Eiver Otter near Otterton Point, Devon. 



w . __ E 



EsplarhCLcte 



L.K. Lower Keuper basemeut-beds, iu which pebbles and fragments are sparsely- 

 scattered. B. Breccia. B.S. Bunter Sandstone. 



the cliff-face all the way to Otterton Point. There we recognise 

 below the breccias the reappearance of the Bunter beds, which are 

 faulted up at the Chit Eock and described by me (see paper A, p. 153, 

 and C, p. 81). Mr. Somervail (p. 462) speaks of these breccias as 

 " only a small portion of still lower beds of the same nature seen 

 on the west side of that [the Otter] river, and extending along the 

 Promenade " at Budleigh Salterton. In this I am unable to follow 

 him. In my notebook I find the accompanying sectional drawing 

 across the Otter, made on the spot, which represents the breccia 

 with the overlying brecciated sandstones as exposed on the same 

 horizon in the Esplanade section. The beds below these I have 

 already relegated to the Bunter of the section further to the west 

 (paper A, p. 153). It reminds one of sections in the Nottingham 

 district. 



In conclusion, I cannot admit that Mr. Alexander Somervail has 

 attained the object of his paper in showing " sufficient evidence 

 for the conclusions that the Sidmouth section has been misread by 



1 There is a misprint in line 10, p. 150, where "more fully developed" should 

 read "more feebly developed." 



