56 PLEISTOCENE DEPOSITS NEAR PADSTOW. 



of sand and earth, in which horns of red deer were found, upon 

 vegetable mould containing shells similar to those now living on 

 the adjoining sand hills. 



We have here a true example of a submerged forest, which, 

 coupled with the raised beach on the adjacent cliffs, and the old 

 consolidated beach reef, gives a fair epitome of the later Pleistocene 

 history of Cornwall. 



The beach reef is the only example that I know of, in Devon and 

 Cornwall, of an old beach below high-water mark, and this is the 

 only locality in which I have seen old beaches marking different 

 stages in the movement of elevation. 



The raised beach indicates a depression of 5 to 10 feet, and a 

 subsequent elevation of more than that amount during a pause in 

 which the beach below high-water was formed, at a time when the 

 relations of sea and land were as at present. But the lower beach 

 must have been also elevated, to allow of its consolidation ; and 

 that elevation must have been of such an extent as to favour the 

 growth of forests on the old marine plain, partly shorn of its 

 deposits by subaerial denuding agencies. Finally, a period of sub- 

 sidence led to the advance of the sea over its old grounds, gaining 

 a plentiful supply of beach materials from the relics of its old 

 deposits, and from river gravels, and causing the decay of the forests 

 and their final entombment in its sands. 



GREEXWAY CLIFFS. 



Proceeding northwards from the Camel Estuary towards Pentire 

 Point, a very interesting section is presented in one part of the 

 coast to the south of Hayle Bay, called Greenway on the Ordnance 

 Map ; shown in the diagram on opposite page (Fig. 3). 



The cliff face, where uncovered by drift and talus, consists of 

 nearly vertical grey slates, against which, in two places, old con- 

 solidated blown sand (A A) abuts, consisting of hard thin beds j 

 of calcareous buff-coloured sandstone, dipping seaward at an angle 

 of 20°. 



Upon a narrow rocky ledge at the base of the cliff, at about five | 

 feet above high- water mark, traces of a raised beach (B B), con- 



