414 



from his observations in this and the adjacent coal-fields, have recently 

 been so ably supported by the masterly observations of Mr. Prestwich 

 upon Coalbrook Dale, with vvhose opinions he entirely coincides. 



The quantity therefore of un wrought coal beneath the new red sand- 

 stone of Shropshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, &c. though pre- 

 viously omitted in statistical data, must form an element in all calcu- 

 lations concerning the probable duration of the carboniferous wealth 

 of the empire. 



May 25. — Golding Bird, Esq., F.L.S., of Seymour-street, Eus- 

 ton-square ; James Smith, Esq., F.R.S., of Jordan's Hill, near Glas- 

 gow; and Octavian Blewitt, Esq., of Charlotte-street, Bloomsbury- 

 square, were elected Fellows of this Society. 



A paper was first read " On the part of Devonshire between the Ex 

 and Berry Head and the Coast and Dartmoor;" by Robert Alfred 

 Cloyne Austen, Esq , F.G.S. 



The formations of which the district consists are transition rocks, 

 new red sandstone, greensand, and trap. 



The transition rocks are sometimes arenaceous, more often slaty, and 

 contain beds of limestone rich in organic remains. The only portion 

 of the system considered by the author as undescribed is a conglo- 

 merate, 1 00 feet thick, which occurs at the Park at Ugbrook. It is com- 

 posed of rounded quartz pebbles and fragments of clay slate, united 

 by a siliceous cement. It alternates in the upper part with beds of 

 clay slate, and is older than any of the limestone of the country. These 

 transition formations are traversed by numerous faults, the strata being 

 thrown into the wildest confusion. In some places beds of trap are 

 regularly interposed without producing any effect upon tiie adjacent 

 strata ; but in other localities dykes intersect the sedimentary deposits, 

 and have produced great alterations both in their structure and dip. 



The new red sandstone consists in the lower part of fine-grained fissile 

 sandstone, and a coarse conglomerate, formed out of the surround- 

 ing older formations, including partially rounded fragments of slate, 

 limestone, porphyry, greenstone, &c. This formation is also much 

 disturbed by faults, some of which, the author thinks, are contempo- 

 raneous with the deposition of the sandstone, as they appear to affect 

 the lower and not the upper beds in the same section. 



The elevation of the greensand of the Haldons, Mr. Austen thinks, 

 was due to the action of a subjacent mass of trap, portions of which 

 are visible at the extremities of the hills : and he is of opinion that the 

 preservation of these insulated patches of greenstone has been owing 

 to their having been raised above the level of the waters which denu- 

 dated the surrounding districts. 



In conclusion the author briefly reviews the geological phenomena 

 which this part of Devonshire presents, and infers from them, that du- 

 ring the transition epoch there were submarine volcanic irruptions, as 

 shown by the interstratified trap ; that the number of organic remains 

 in the limestone prove the ocean teemed, in parts, with life : that 

 the new red conglomerate was due to the breaking up of the transition 

 formations : that there were irruptions of trap at later periods, as proved 



