Reports and Proceedings. 45 



gave a description of the Old Eed Sandstone, its petrological and 

 palfeontological cliaracters, and its general distribution in Europe 

 and elsewhere. 



Exeter Naturalists' Club. — The members of this club made 

 their last excursion for the season on Saturday, September 23rd, 1865, 

 to Northam Burrows. Mr. Townshend M. Hall, F.G.S., read a 

 paper "On the Greology of Barnstaple and its neighbourhood, and on 

 the Pebble ridge at Northam Burrows. He remarked that no geolo- 

 gical maps of North Devon had yet represented all the beds that 

 were to be met with there ; some called the whole of the' rocks 

 Devonian, others Carboniferous, while even the Geological Survey 

 maps gave no more than three or four varieties of rocks. He ex- 

 hibited a geological map of the district, which he had constructed 

 from his own observations, and had traced the Devonian, Carboni- 

 ferous, patches of red sandstone referred to to the Trias, greensand 

 probably Cretaceous, and Post-tertiary formations, such as drift, 

 raised-beaches, and a submerged forest. The author then described 

 these deposits in detail, beginning with the oldest, which 

 he called "North Devonian," because on account of the singular 

 mixture of its fossil-remains it is doubtful as to whether it 

 belongs to the Old Eed Sandstone (or true Devonian), or forms 

 part of the Carboniferous system. The several members of this 

 series are spoken of as the Linton, Martinhoe, Ilfracombe, Morthoe, 

 Marwood, and Pilton groups, and extend from the Foreiand to 

 Marwood. The Pilton beds are regarded as Upper Devonian, 

 although they are physically more connected with the Carboniferous ; 

 their fossils, however, render them quite distinct from both the Old 

 Eed Sandstone and Carboniferous, for they contain the same plants 

 as the former, several characteristic shells of the latter, and numerous 

 fossils peculiar to themselves. The Marwood group is the most 

 constant in yielding everywhere, throughout its whole extent, fossils 

 of the same genus and species ; the author had traced it from Baggy 

 Point to High Bray, a distance of seventeen miles ; it is worked 

 extensively at fifteen places as a building-stone, and specimens of 

 Cucullcea are abundant at all the quarries. The Linton group has 

 yielded, up to the present time, fifteen species of fossils, the Ilfra- 

 combe thirty, the Marwood seventeen, and the Pilton sixty-five. 



The Carboniferous Limestone, next in order, extends in a series 

 of alternating shales from Westleigh to Bampton, the quarries of 

 Swimbridge and Yen alFord the best sections ; at the latter place it 

 occurs in beds of unequal thickness and quality, very much con- 

 torted. Posidonomya, Goniatites, and Orthoceratites, are almost the 

 only fossils found in these beds. Near the quarry of Ven, the Lime- 

 stone is capped by Mill stone -grit, which also occupies the whole 

 coast-line from Fremington to near Tintagel. The Carboniferous 

 district contains in many places, in faults and hollows, patches of 

 New Eed Sandstone : Greensand in like manner is found at Orleigh 

 Court. 



Mr. Hall then referred to the Post-tertiaxy deposits, and stated 



