PLEISTOCENE DEPOSITS NEAR PADSTOW. 



57 



sisting of coarse consolidated sand, made up of comminuted shells 

 and slaty debris inclosing pebbles, were observed, in one spot, 

 adhering to the slate reef. The base of the old consolidated blown 

 sand rests upon the rocky platform. Near the traces of raised 

 beach the cliff face is composed of brown loam (C), with numerous 

 small angular slate fragments, and occasionally a few large pebbles 

 and blocks of quartz and slate. This stony loam or " Head " is 

 about 15 feet in thickness. It is capped by 4 or 5 feet of gravel (D), 

 consisting of large and small pebbles and angular and subangular 

 fragments of grit, quartz, slate, and greenstone, in grey loamy 

 earth. In one part near its junction with the slates, angular slate 

 fragments predominate in the gravel. The cliff is much obscured, 

 by talus concealing the junction of C and D with the slates, in 

 which they ajjpear to occupy an eroded hollow. The base of the 

 gravel (D) is rather more than 20 feet above high-water mark. 



Fig. 3. Grkenway Cliff. 

 \ title U ^cile—1 inch = 21 feet 



If the gravel D is a raised, beach, it must be either older or 

 newer than the old consolidated beach on the reef below. If older, 

 the stony loam (C) would date back to a time anterior to the raised 

 beach formation, and would have been subsequently submerged to 

 allow of a shelf being cut in it, and the deposition of a gravel beach 

 at 20 feet above present high-water mark. The absence of signs 

 of beach at this height in a neighbourhood where the raised beaches 

 seldom exceed 10 feet above high- water mark ; the unconsolidated 

 character of the gi'avel ; and the friable nature of the " Head " on 

 which it rests ; negative the idea that D is a raised beach of older 



