444 W. A. E. JJssher — Palceozoic Rodis of Devon and Somerset. 



I Hangman Grits. 

 Middle Devonian | (Mortelioe and Ilfracombe Series). 



( Slates, Shales, local Gritty Beds and Limestones. 



/ PickweU Down Grits with Slates. 

 Upper Devonian | Bagg-y Beds — Lingula Slates, Cucullsea Grits. 



( Pilton Beds — Argillaceous Slates. 



The Foreland grits occupy a superficies of about tliirty square 

 miles, extending a distance of seventeen nailes from Countesbury 

 on the west to Minehead on the east. 



They consist of very hard, generally fine-grained, siliceous, red 

 brown and pale grey grits in thick beds, associated with chocolate 

 red and grey, very hard, irregularly bedded, fine grits, splitting 

 somewhat lil^e marl through a network of close intersecting joints, 

 etc., and very occasionally (as in the valley near Minehead church), 

 assuming a shaly structure. 



The Foreland grits are thrown against the Lynton beds by a great 

 fault, shown near the angle of the Foreland projection on the coast, 

 and separated from the point by three spits of gravel beach isolated 

 from the fault, and from each other, by projections of the cliff. In 

 the cliffs the fault is discernible as a thin irregular line of reddish 

 earth, but in their upper and receding portion it is not distinguish- 

 able from the beach, probably owing to the presence of a patch of 

 Lynton beds upon the upcast side. In the beach-reefs the fault is 

 evidenced in a direction from E. 15° S. to W. 15° N. ; near it. 

 Foreland grits, stained bufi" and yellow from infiltration, form a con- 

 spicuous patch of colour in the cliffs. The fault running inland by 

 Countesbury Camp cuts across the bends in the West Lynn valley on 

 either side of Watersmeet, being shifted a little to the south, by a 

 cross fault at the east end of the Camp. It runs by Hill Farm, 

 Malmsmead, and Oare {vide Q.J.G.S. for Aug. 1879, p. 538, etc.). 



Patches of Lynton beds appear to rest conformably upon the 

 Foreland rocks, on the north side of this great junction fault at Oare, 

 and probably on the east of Hall Farms, where it appears to be 

 shifted by a cross fault. With the disappearance of the Lynton beds 

 in the East Lynn valley between Oareford and Luccott Hill, it 

 becomes exceedingly difficult to fix on the course of the fault, as the 

 evidence of surface stones and individual sections is not sufficiently 

 marked to distinguish the Foreland from the Hangman series. The 

 fault appears to run from Oareford along the south slope of the 

 valley from Stock Mill to Cloutsham Ball. It is probably shifted 

 by a cross fault on the north of Luckham Barrows, and disappears 

 under the Trias near Old Ball Farm. The Foreland grits reappear 

 at Timberscombe ; the main fault, having been shifted to the south, 

 by a cross fault along the Timberscombe valley, runs into the Triassic 

 area near Withycombe, passing by Bonniton (where the Foreland 

 grits make characteristic rounded knoll features) and the north of 

 Dunster Park. 



Eocks resembling Foreland grits occur near Parson Farm, on the 

 north margin of the Quantocks, but they may be a variety of the 

 Hangman series. 



Lynton Beds. — The Lynton beds occupy an area of about fourteen 



