A. J. Jukes-Broicne — The Bovey Deposits. 257 



III. — The Depth and Succession of the Bovey Deposits.^ 

 By A. J. Jukes-Browne, B.A., F.G.S. 



IN the report of an excursion organized by the Geologists' Associa- 

 tion to Newton Abbot in 1900, Mr. H. B. Woodward stated 

 that a boring had been made by Messrs. Candy & Co. at Heath- 

 field, near the middle of the Bovey Basin, and that it "had been 

 carried to a depth of 520 feet from the surface through clays, sands, 

 and lignites without reaching the base ". 



As this is the deepest boring which has yet been made in the Bovey 

 Basin, and as no further particulars have yet been published, I applied 

 to Messrs. Candy & Co. for any information that they could give me, 

 and I have their permission to publish the following particulars, with 

 which they were kind enough to furnish me. 



The site of the boring is the great clay-pit belonging to Messrs. 

 Candy & Co. close to Heathfield Station, about 3 J miles north-west 

 of Newton Abbot. The depth of the pit is actually 70 feet, and the 

 boring was started on its floor; it was carried down to 456i feet, so 

 that the depth reached was 526J feet from the surface, this level 

 being about 90 feet above the sea (o.n.). 



The 70 feet of strata exposed in the pit include some 20 feet of 

 superficial deposits of post-Eocene age, gravel, sand, and clay ; below 

 these are beds of clay, with one bed of lignitic material about 7 feet 

 thick and a lenticular bed of sand. The first 100 feet of the boring 

 traversed various beds of clay and sand with four beds of lignite. In 

 the next 100 feet only one bed of lignite was met with, but below 

 200 feet lignites predominated to such an extent that the material 

 traversed is described as consisting principally of "lignite in thick 

 beds divided by layers of brown clay, the beds of lignite being much 

 thicker than those of clay, and the thickest lignite having a depth of 

 over 20 feet". No beds of sand were met with below a depth of 

 300 feet. The bore ended in a bed of lignite. 



The information above given may be summarized as follows : — 



Feet. 

 Superficial deposits, gravel and sand ..... 20 



Clay, with some beds of sand and one of lignite 



Beds of clay and sand, with four of lignite 



Beds of clay and sand, with one of lignite 



Beds of lignite and clay, with a thin bed of sand at 300 feet 



Beds of lignite divided by layers of brown clay 



50 

 100 

 100 



36 

 220* 



52^ 

 Mr. "Woodward states that the dip of the Eocene beds seen in the 

 open pit is 8° to the W.S.W. If the total thickness of Eocene 

 deposits proved by the boring is taken as 500 feet, and allowance is 

 made for the dip, the exact thickness of the beds at right angles to the 

 dip may be stated as 493 feet. 



The chief interest of this succession of deposits lies in the fact that 

 beds of lignite predominate so greatly in the lower part, and that beds 

 of sand only occur in the upper 300 feet. When we remember that 



' A paper read before the Geological Society on February 5. 



DECADE V. — VOL. VI. — NO. VI. 17 



