266 GEOLOGY AND ARCHEOLOGY OF CORNWALL AND DEVON. 



which yielded them are as likely to be in Cornwall as in France. 

 The Anglo-Saxon may be less unwilling to be under obligation to 

 the Cornubii than to the Gauls. The ancient possessors of the soil 

 have a right to be generous to those who have come to share their 

 home. I shall be delighted to hear that some energetic young 

 Cornishman is devoting himself to the elucidation of the Goran 

 quartzites and their contents. 



Flints on the existing Beaches of Cornwall and West Devon : — 

 It is well known that there is at present no deposit of flint any- 

 where in Cornwall or in Devonshire west of the basin of the Teign. 

 That, with a few local and easily explained exceptions, our beach 

 materials travel up channel, or from west to east, might have 

 been predicated from the contour of the coast and the prevalence of 

 south-westerly winds. That such is the case is rendered evident 

 by the fact, that, eastward from the Exe inclusive, bars of sand 

 and shingle extend from the western towards the eastern side of 

 every river in south-eastern Devon and south-western Dorset ; that 

 the rivers themselves are jammed against their eastern banks, 

 where, if sufficiently powerful, they force a passage to the sea ; that 

 pebbles can be traced eastward, but not westward, from their 

 parent beds; and that the famous Chesil Bank, nearly eleven 

 miles long, which connects the "island" of Portland with Dorset- 

 shire, is entirely made up of materials from the west, amongst 

 which the Budleigh Salterton quartzite pebbles occur in consider- 

 able numbers, after having performed a journey of fully fifty 

 miles. 



Beside the foregoing facts, there is another, which with them 

 in view, is not easy of explanation. I allude to the occurrence of 

 flints on, at least, almost every existing shingle beach along the 

 entire sea-bord of Cornwall and West Devon. This fact appears 

 to be of considerable standing, for it is equally true of the Eaised 

 beaches of the two counties. Nevertheless, in the earlier era, 

 represented by the ancient beaches, the direction of transportation 

 was up channel as at present, for at Easter last (1870) Mr. Vicary 

 and I found Budleigh Salterton pebbles in great numbers in a 

 well developed Eaised beach at Portland Bill. 



"Whence the flints on the western strands were derived is a 

 problem that still awaits solution. He who will ascertain their 



