556 T. Mellard Reade—On the Lower Trias. 
But where have the bulk of the materials travelled from? If we 
look to the geological structure of the lands to the north, there do 
not appear to exist rocks in sufficient quantity of a nature to supply 
the great mass of quartzose sand constituting so large a bulk of the 
Trias. The English Channel, judging from the islands dotted about 
it and the peninsula of Cornwall, appears to be a granitic and 
gneissic area, and it is possible that much of the Triassic Sands may 
have travelled from this locality. To bring this material through 
subaerial denudation within the distributing grasp of the tides a 
regional elevation of a thousand feet would be largely effective. 
It would become a land area supplying quartz-grains to build up 
the sandstones and decomposed felspar as a contribution to the marls. 
From the indestructibility of the quartz-grains they would last 
longer and travel farther than the other mineral constituents of the 
rock. Concurrently with this elevation the land occupied now by 
the Triassic deposits must have been relatively depressed, giving 
entrance to the sea in the way already sketched out. 
It may possibly be urged in objection to this view that there is 
no connection between the Lower Trias of the South-west of 
England and that of the Midlands. We know, however, that there 
is as regards the Upper Trias along the Severn Valley, and it is quite 
likely that to the east of this line the Lower Trias may underlie the 
Lias' and Oolites. The lie or disposition of the overlying formations 
favours this idea, and there are no borings to disprove it. Any one 
who has practically attempted to prove continuity by borings over 
even a limited area knows how uncertain the method is. 
It is also not impossible that the anticlinal ridge—not necessarily 
an impassable barrier of Paleeozoic rocks—eonnecting the Mendips 
in Somersetshire with the Belgian Coal-fields, so sagaciously pointed 
out by the late Mr. Godwin-Austen, may have yielded contributions 
to the Trias, for the existence of Old Red Sandstone in this ridge 
under London has been proved. 
May not some of the quartzite pebbles have had their origin here 
also ? for, as already stated, they diminish in size and number as we 
go northwards. Even at Market Drayton in Shropshire the pebbles 
in the conglomerate are more numerous and larger than in Cheshire 
or Lancashire. Pebbles of quartzite containing fossils similar to 
those of Budleigh Salterton are reported by Mr. Jerome Harrison 
and others as occurring in the Trias of the Midlands and in the drift 
derived therefrom. The boulders and pebbles of Budleigh Salterton 
also appear to be larger on the average than those of the Midlands, 
which facts seem to point to a common derivation and a longer travel 
of those of the Midlands.’ 
1 See records of some remarkable borings in Woodward’s “ Geology of England 
and Wales,’’ second edition, facing p. 612, ‘also the accompanying Geological Map of 
England and Wales. 
* See Quartzite Pebbles of the Drift and Triassic Strata of England, Proc. of 
Birmingham Phil. Society, vol. iii. p. 157 (1882); On the Triassic Rocks of 
Somerset and Devon, W. A. E. Ussher, Q.J.G.S. vol. xxxii. p. 567 (1876) ; Notes 
on the Classification of the Triassic Beds of the South-West of England, H. B. 
Woodward Geol. Survey Memoir on E. Somerset and Bristol Coalfields ; : Red Rock 
Series of the Devon Coast, Rey. A. Irving, Q.J.G.S. 1888, p. 149. 
