12 B. B. Woodward — Drift, etc., Nexcquay, Cormcall. 



yet been extracted from it, whereas in the succeeding epoch molluscan 

 life at all events was abundant, while man occupied the area. 



It is usual to speak of these overlying latest deposits as 'blown 

 sand.' This, however, is inaccurate : when investigated they prove 

 to contain a large amount of soil, and are in reality composed of hill- 

 wash with a large admixture of calcareous sand blown up off the 

 beach. Consequently they may more correctly be termed ' hill-wash- 

 dunes.' Of true ' blown sand ' dunes there are a few examples in the 

 lower part of the links near the road down to the beach and possibly 

 a few towards the centre of that ground where less hill-wash would 

 be brought down. 



This dune period is divisible into two stages. An earlier layer 

 present in the vicinity of the Headland Hotel, which is characterised 

 by a molluscan fauna of a more woodland facies than that of the later 

 period, and probably connotes a time when the sea had not re- 

 excavated the bay to anything like its present extent. It is in this 

 lower layer that the chief human remains occur. The later and more 

 predominant hill-wash-dunes that overlie this suggest by their fossil 

 contents the gradual coming on of the present open heath-like 

 condition's and the nearer vicinity of the sea. 



The first observer to give the correct reading of the sequence of 

 these beds was Dr. H. S. Boase,' who is at great pains to point out 

 the two series of sands, one above and the other below the ' head,' 

 and he corrects De la Beche's error of considering the lower series 

 with its consolidated portions to be blown sand. Dr. Boase's paper is 

 worthy of more attention than it appears to have received : even 

 Mr. Ussher has failed to notice this portion of his paper. 



Turning to tlie actual sections and taking Fistral Hay first, we find 

 in the northern angle of the bay (1 on the map, Plate II), next the 

 Headland Hotel, as all along the bay, 1-2 feet of hill-wash surface 

 soil. Under this there is 4 or 5 feet of 'head' resting in turn on 

 the indurated old marine sands that pass down into the old pebble 

 beach at the base; these two last having a total of 10 feet to the 

 killas, of which all along the bay about 10 feet is exposed. 



Proceeding southwards, the old marine sands become less indurated, 

 while the pebble beach is less pronounced. About 50 yards south 

 from the first point there has manifestly been some ei'osion of the old 

 marine deposits and a corresponding thickening of the 'head,' the 

 section showing from 4 to 5 feet of ' head,' then a sand seam 5 feet 

 (which has nothing to do with the indurated series, though it may 

 have been derived from the destruction of beds thereof that lie higher 

 up on the slopes of the hills), and another layer of ' head ' 3 feet 

 thick, beneath which there is a trace only of the old sand and beach. 

 This spot appears to represent the lowest point in the tideway of the 

 old bay. 



When the road down to the beach (2) is reached the ' head ' is 

 found to be only some 6-8 feet, resting on about 5 feet of the old 

 beach, which here consists of layers of sand and pebbles passing 

 down into the coarse pebbly beach at tlie base. Judging from his 



' Trans. Roy. Geol. Soc. Coruwnll, vol. iv (1832), pp. 468-9. 



