406 A. It. Hunt — The Torhay Rcdsed Beaches. 



he reminded me of a gravel bed between Paignton and Torquay, 

 described in his paper mentioned above, wherein Mr. Ussher writes — • 

 " We have in the alluvial deposits of the Goodrington and Paignton 

 flats, and in the blown sands extending from Eoundham Head to 

 the north part of Preston Sands, and in the present sea-beaches, the 

 latest evidences of Pleistocene deposition. Of these three phenomena 



the gravels near the gasworks are probably the oldest All 



these events transpired within that most recent part of the Pleistocene 

 period which succeeded the formation and elevation of the old 

 beaches of Hope's Nose and other places." ^ We see clearly that 

 Mr. Ussher here knows of no " old beach " at Paignton, as, his 

 subject being " The Geology of Paignton," he goes to Hope's Nose 

 for an example of such deposits. Mr. Pengelly, writing of precisely 

 the same locality, observes — "A glance at the existing beach at the 

 toot of the cliff, a study of the Raised Beaches almost in sight '^ etc. ' 

 (italics mine). The Eaised Beaches "almost in sight" are again 

 those at Hope's Nose and Brixham ; the one obscured from view 

 by Daddy Hole Point, the other nearly five miles distant across 

 the bay. 



Mr. Pengelly clearly, though writing of Paignton Quaternary 

 Geology, knew of no Raised Beach there. It may, I think, be 

 accepted as a fact that no Raised Beach at Paignton has been known 

 to any local geologist. But as both Mr. Pengelly and Mr. Ussher 

 spoke of Raised Beaches in connection with the geology of Paignton, 

 a reader might easily remain under the impression that Raised 

 Beaches occurred in the immediate neighbourhood. "Beaches almost 

 in sight " might very well be round the next headland instead of the 

 nearest being three miles distant. 



A Raised Beach at Paignton would snap a very pretty chain, or 

 set of chains, of evidence, reconstructing the ancient coast-line. 

 There is an immense amount of work still awaiting the right man 

 in the sands and pebbles of the ancient beaches. Never was I more 

 struck by geological evidence than I was by two pebbles at Brixham — 

 one absolutely indistinguishable in form from the sphei'oidal chert 

 of Chesil ; the other a characteristic igneous rock from the Teign- 

 niouth conglomerates, found, I believe, nowhei'e else. These stones 

 must have travelled across the mouth of Torbay, about 20 feet or 

 so above the level of present high-water. Such a fact signifies 

 volumes ! By no possibility could these pebbles have travelled 

 round such a bay as Torbay is now. These stones alone suffice to 

 forbid the possibility of a Raised Beach at Paignton, at any rate one 

 contemporaneous with the rest. 



In Professor Prestwich's paper referred to, the author, while 

 mentioning my work in the kindest manner, cites me as an authority 

 in favour of the view that blocks trawled in the English Channel 

 were ice-borne, e.g., " Mr. Hunt dismisses the hypothesis of adjacent 

 land-ice, owing to the absence of similar blocks between Dartmoor 

 and the sea, and concludes that they were brought there by floating 



1 Trans. Devon Assoc, vol. x, p. 203. 



2 Loc. cit., p. 200. 



