312 A. J. Jukes-Browne & R. B. Newton — 



When Mr. Whidborne's paper was published I was not specially- 

 interested in the details of the geological structure of Torquay, 

 but since then I have paid much attention to these local details 

 and have collected fossils from all existing exposures. I was 

 consequently surprised to find on reference to the note published 

 by Mr. Whidborne that he had regarded tliese fossils as a Lower 

 Devonian assemblage, in spite of the fact that the Museum is in close 

 contiguity to a tract of Middle Devonian Limestone, as shown on 

 the map of the Geological Survey published in 1898. Moreover, 

 he quoted a statement made by the late Mr. A. Somervail regarding 

 the stratigraphical position of the slates which is entirely incorrect. 

 It is not true that in ascending the Torwood valley from The Strand 

 one passes over a descending series of rocks. The beds underlying 

 The Strand are shaly slates, which dip northward under limestone, 

 and the same slates run up the valley to and a little beyond the 

 Museum ; they are then succeeded by limestone which crosses the 

 valley in a south-east direction, and about 100 yards higher up this 

 is faulted against slates which are believed to be of Lower Devonian 

 age. There is therefore every reason to suppose that tl)e slates are 

 the Calceola Shales and pass under the adjacent limestone. Another 

 band of similar shale extends from Torwood Gardens to Meadfoot 

 Beach, where it can be seen to pass under the limestone. It should 

 also be mentioned that in his memoir on tlie Geology of the Country 

 around Torquay (1903) Mr. Ussher referred the slates of the Museum 

 site to the Eifelian ( = Calceola Shales) without any mention of 

 Mr. Whidborne's opinion about the fauna. 



It would require very strong palaeontological evidence to establish 

 the existence of Lower Devonian below the Museum, and, though 

 Mr. Whidborne headed his note "Lower Devonian Fossils from 

 Torquay ", it would seem that he was prepared to admit a doubt 

 about the matter, for his opinion is expressed as follows: "It will 

 be seen that they may on the whole be referred to the Upper 

 Coblenzien or to a slightly higher horizon." Now the next 

 stage in the French sequence is the Eifelian, or Couvinian as the 

 Belgians prefer to call it, i.e. the lowest part of the Middle 

 Devonian. 



The fauna as described by Mr. Whidborne, omitting Corals and 

 Bryozoa, comprised thirteen identified species, and of these nine 

 range up from the Coblencian to the Middle Devonian, but four 

 of them are essentially Lower Devonian and do not range upward. 

 It thus becomes a question whether these four species were correctly 

 identified. Moreover, I found that though Mr. Whidborne had 

 returned the specimens which he had studied to the Museum, only 

 those which he had actually figured were named and mounted. The 

 rest were put away in drawers and only bore small numbers, which 

 probably referred to some list, but about which nothing was known 

 at the Museum nor by Mr. Else. Consequently some of the 

 specimens which Mr. Whidborne had named but liad not figured 

 could not be recognized. There were also specimens in a box, 

 and I am informed by Mr. Else that the material examined by 

 Mr. Whidborne did not include all the fossils obtained. 



