432 Correspondence — B. B. Woodivarcl. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



NEWQUAY: FIFTEEN YEARS AFTER. 



Sir, — Eevisiting Newquay this su.mmer after an irkterval of 

 fifteen years, I found tke sections which were described in the 

 Geological Magazine (1907, p. 10 et seqq.) so much changed that a 

 note to that effect seems called for. No one now visiting the place 

 could see or recognize the features then visible. To begin with sand 

 has accumulated to such an extent in Fistral Bay that the 10 feet 

 of killas formerly visible all round the little bay, is,, save at the 

 southern end, all concealed and instead of low cliffs only sand slopes 

 exist. The miniature arched rock of indurated sand in Nun Cove 

 is broken through, only the two side pillars remaining, while the 

 seaward one has been slightly displaced. 



The fallen material at the base of the little cliffs under the 

 Headland Hotel being no longer removed by the sea the upper 

 portions have simply crumbled down, obscuring the sections, and 

 only in two small places was the Helix nemoralis zone properly 

 recognizable. The two cooking sites and the hut platform have 

 quite disappeared, and other sections not immediately next the 

 sea are overgrown. Only on the west side of the Headland itself 

 where the heavy surf beats in rough weather, was erosion obvious. 



Perhaps this may be a fitting opportunity to put on record a 

 pregnant suggestion which I received from Col. Godwin-Austen, 

 namely, that the layers of mussel shells in the dunes might be 

 accounted for otherwise than I suggested. The theory propounded 

 in my paper was that in times of dearth of other food the mussels 

 had been carried up by gulls and crows to devour their contents at 

 leisure. The Colonel's hypothesis was that when very severe frost 

 coincided with low tide, the molluscs would be killed off wholesale, 

 and the empty shells thus released in quantities would be borne 

 landwards periodically in subsequent gales. 



B. B. Woodward. 



17th August, 1922. 



