86 B. B. Woodward — Drift, etc., Neicqumj, Cormcall. 



not be. They contain no angular fragments of rock, all such large 

 pebbles as they enclose being well rounded, while the few fossils that 

 have been found genuinely embedded in them are marine.^ 



The coarse pebble beach at the base contains well-worn fragments 

 of rock ; the bulk, of vein quartz, is of local origin, but, according to 

 Mr. Clement Keid, who has studied them, there is a considerable 

 admixture of rocks not traceable in the immediate vicinity. Mr. Reid 

 postulates ice for their transport, but has to invoke many hypotheses 

 to buttress this contention, while he is obliged to admit that the fossils 

 indicate a temperate period. He even refers to this raised beach a big 

 greenstone boulder found on the beach at the southern end of Fistral 

 Bay ; had he searched the cliff above he would have found in the 

 ' head,' a much more likely source, boulders to compare with it 

 in size. 



To the writer a more simple explanation, demanding but a single 

 hypothesis, is that these fragments were derived from contiguous rocks 

 that have been removed in the formation of the present coastline. 



It is evident that a vast interval of time must have been consumed, 

 first in the excavation of the old bay and the wearing down of the 

 killas to form the old platform (possibly with the assistance of the 

 pebbles that afterwards went to form the beach immediately lying 

 thereon), then in the production and piling up of the marine sands to 

 a depth of 20 feet before the ' head ' period. Under these circum- 

 stances a greater age must be attributed to this set of deposits than 

 has hitherto been granted, so that one would not be surprised if they 

 ultimately were referred to the Pliocene. There is nothing in the few 

 fossils they contain to disprove this. 



With regard to the molluscan fauna of the hill-wash-dunes, the 

 accompanying table speaks for itself. Twenty-five species are here 

 recorded, as against seventeen in Mr. Warren's list. 



Mr. A. S. Kennard has most kindly assisted in the case of critical 

 specimens and undertook to search the material for slug remains : 

 those given are all of his finding. To Mr. E. A. Smith, I.S.O., I am 

 indebted for the determination of the smaller marine species. 



No particular attention was given to the marine forms and no 

 register kept of their number where more than a chance specimen was 

 present : their occurrences are consequently marked in most cases 

 solely by an *. 



It is also impossible to attach a number for the calcareous grains 

 that represent the shell in Arion, since they stand for an uncertain 

 quantity, hence in their case too an * is employed to mark their 

 occurrence. 



The division of the species into ' woodland ' and ' sand dune ' is 

 a matter of assemblage rather than an individual quality, and has not 

 been attempted. If, however, the species recorded for the Helix 

 nemoralis zone be scrutinized, it will be manifest at once that they as 

 an assemblage differ from tlie group of forms from the upper beds and 



^ The ox bones cited by De la Beche (Rep. Gaol. Cornwall, etc., pp. 427-8) 

 obviously came out of one of the pipes, as also must the portion of red-deer's antler 

 recorded and figured by Borlase, Nat. Hist. Cornwall, p. 281, pi. xxvii, fig. 5. 



