in the Bunter of Wed Somerset. 165 



similar deposits of the Williton district. The southern river was 

 probably joined by ti'ibutaries from the west, as suggested by Mr. H. H. 

 Thomas. 



Note on the Breccia- Conglomerate. 



The lowest division of the !N'e\v Red Series, when traced from 

 Devon into Somerset, undergoes a change similar to that which takes 

 place in the Eunter division. The gravels of the Tiverton district 

 are represented in West Somerset, partly by similar deposits and 

 partly by a breccio-con glomerate of subangular or rounded fragments 

 of limestone, grit, quartz, and slate. I found limestone pebbles with 

 crinoid fragments near Escott, at Bathealton, and at Cobhay ; but, 

 in the absence of other fossils, there is not enough evidence to 

 determine whether these pebbles represent Devonian, Culm, or normal 

 Carboniferous Limestones : they most resemble the latter. 



The fossiliferous nature of the limestone pebbles occurring in the 

 Breccio- Conglomerate is mentioned in several places in the recently 

 published Memoirs of the Geological Survey, and corals are stated 

 to occur in the limestone pebbles near Escott,' but no species are 

 mentioned. At Langley, near Wiveliscombe, " the limestone fragments 

 are numerous, and mostly grey or pale grey, and sometimes oolitic ; 

 the majority resemble Carboniferous Limestone (Mendip type) rather 

 than Devonian." ^ 



In a recent paper ^ I pointed out that fragments of grit with Upper 

 Devonian fossils can be traced in the Lower New Red gravels for 

 a distance of 15 miles southward from the outcrop of the Upper 

 Devonian rocks. Although it is possible that some of these fossili- 

 ferous fragments may have been derived from Upper Devonian rocks 

 concealed beneath the New Red deposits in the Tiverton and Crediton 

 Valleys, as suggested by Etheridge,'' it is more probable that they 

 have been derived from the north-east. I have not been able to detect 

 similar fragments in the Lower New Red deposits of West Somerset, 

 and this fact is suggestive of drifts from the north or north-east in 

 the case of these deposits as well as in the case of the Tiverton gravels. 



If this view is correct, we should expect to find the Culm limestones 

 largely represented in the Breccio-Conglomerate of Sampford Peverell 

 (which lies south-west of the Culm inliers near Burlescombe) and 

 Carboniferous Limestone of the normal or Mendip type in the Breccio- 

 Conglomerate further north. The limestone fragments in the Sampford 

 Peverell Quarries have been referred to the Culm limestones by 

 geologists from De la Beche onwards, and although in a short visit 

 to these quarries I was unable to find any fossiliferous fragments 

 which would have afforded definite evidence of their origin, there 

 seems no reason to doubt that the limestone pebbles have been derived 

 from the Culm limestones, which they closely resemble. Close search 

 in the Sampford Peverell Quarries would probably reveal fragments of 

 shale with Posidonomya or Goniatites. 



' " Geology of the Quantock Hills, etc.," p. 42. 

 2 Ibid., p. 43. 



^ Geol. Mag., 1908, pp. 1.50-7. 



* See Mr. W. A. E. Ussher's paper on " The British Culm Measures" : Proc. 

 Somersetshire Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc, 1892. 



