PLEISTOCENE DEPOSITS NEAR PADSTOW. 



55 



it : thus the ordinary action of the tide in forming hollows under 

 any heavy substances encountered on a sand beach has been fossilized 

 and preserved for ages. 



(Fig. 2). On the north side of the streamlet, side by side with the 



old beach reef, and 



pla 



s only a few feet from it, I observed a 

 mass of blackish peaty matter contain- 

 ing twigs and land shells in a very 

 fragile condition. 



Mr. Parfitt, of Exeter, kindly identi- 

 fied the few specimens I brought away 

 as Helix nemoralis var., Bytliinia tenia- 

 culata and a small Physa. The masses 

 of peaty matter were little more than 

 a foot above the surrounding sand when 

 I visited the spot, so that the base of 

 the stratum was nowhere observable. 

 During the 17 years which had elapsed 

 between Mr. Henwood's visit to this 

 spot and my own, considerable changes 

 must have taken place, both in the 

 destruction of the vegetable remains, 

 and in the exposure of the old con- 

 solidated beach reefs. Mr. Henwood^ 

 says that, "In a small bay (called 

 Dayraer Bay), between Brea Hill on 

 the south-east and Trebetherick Point 

 on the north-east, a layer of earth, 

 often replaced by clay, and containing 

 fragments of slate and roots of trees 

 in silu, protruded through the Doom- 

 bar sands, traceable on slate rock from 

 above high-water to below ordinary 

 low-water mark, without reaching its 

 boundary in either direction." The 

 roots were found spreading for 20 feet 

 horizontally and erect ; they were of oak and hazel, and surrounded 

 by successive layers of leaves and nuts, alternating with thin beds 

 1 Op. cit. 



