J. S. Gardner — Correlation of the Tertiary Series. 153 



the two. I by no means, however, endorse Pengelly's idea that the 

 coal is in extensive layers, but should expect to find it only in local 

 patches, of greater or less extent. It is rather difficult to make out 

 what Pengelly believes to be the total thickness of the Bovey Tracey 

 Beds proper. He says, however, that 210 feet is its aggregate thick- 

 ness, exclusive of Mr. Divett's section, showing, as corroborated by 

 Pengelly, 130 feet of underlying deposit, and of the fault showing 

 at least 100 feet of higher beds. We have thus a total of 440 feet, 

 yet the bottom has never been reached, and much has been denuded. 

 Forbes, in speaking of them, says : * — " The present geographical 

 limits of the deposit may have scarcely any relation to its original 

 extension. It is interrupted by considerable faults ; and the beds are 

 occasionally disposed at high angles, which ■ have no relation to the 

 present surface-contour ; and it seems probable that they may be 

 but a remnant of the original formation, which has been protected 

 from denudation in the Bovey Valley." 



The palseontological evidence upon which the 

 Miocene age of these beds has been determined, 

 proves conclusively that they are Middle Eocene 

 and on the same horizon as the beds at Bourne- 

 mouth, only 80 miles distant. The Oaks, the 

 Laurels, the Figs, apparently all the dicotyledonous 

 leaves, are identical. The Cinnamons of Bovey, 

 thought to be especially characteristic of Miocene, 

 are abundant at Bournemouth. The fruits are so 

 similar that handfuls of Anona from each place, if 

 once mixed, could not again be separated. Two 

 Ferns out of three are common to Bournemouth 

 and Bovey, and of these the most characteristic 

 is found equally abundantly at both, and in pre- 

 cisely similar positions. The pinnas of Osmunda 

 lignita are found in blackish shaly clay, spread 

 in layers and mingled with Cactus spines (Palma- 

 cites Dcemonorops, Heer) and Sequoia. On the 

 other hand, the three small seeds which are sup- 

 posed to link Bovey with Hempstead are insigni- 

 ficant, and indeed are not confined to the Hemp- 

 stead Beds. If the Bovey Beds are Miocene, the 

 Bournemouth Beds must also be Miocene. 



Having so much reason to believe that the 

 series is contemporaneous with the Eocene at 

 Bournemouth, we see that this silted-up lake lies 

 in the direction whence the Great Eocene river 

 came, and must either have been in its direct 

 course, or in that of one of its affluents. Lyell's JXSffiSSlK 

 account of the imbedding of plant- remains in the indistinguishable from 

 Slave Lake is so curiously like what must have O. lignita." 1 



happened here, that parts of it are extracted. 



1 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. ix. 

 2 From the Eoyal Herbarium, Kew. Plenasium bromelicefolium, Presl., Ettings- 

 hausen's Farnkrauter der Jetztwelt, p. 152, fig. 66, 67 ; pi. 80, fig. 1. Isle of Luzon. 



