442 



the horizontal deposit. Over the shingles are horizontal beds of sand, 

 occasionally indurated, sometimes putting on a concretionary struc- 

 ture, and weathering into grotesque forms by the action of the ele- 

 ments. Lastly, the preceding deposits are surmounted by regular 

 beds of finely laminated sand in a state of imperfect induration, and 

 sometimes hardly differing from the sand of the actual beach between 

 the high and low water marks. The thickness of these beds of sand 

 amounts in some places to more than twenty feet. These marine 

 deposits are frequently covered by terrestrial overshot materials which 

 have descended from the higher talus of Saunton Downs. In the 

 whole of the stratified undercliff above described there are sea shells. 

 In the upper part they are rare, and in a bad state of peservation ; 

 but in the lower and more indurated portions they are more abundant, 

 are often well preserved, sometimes appearing in beds, and in their 

 condition and arrangement exactly resembling the shells of a modern 

 beach. In species, they are identical with the living shells of the coast. 

 Among them the authors enumerate Maclra stultorum, Tell'mafa- 

 bula, T. solidula, Cardium edule, Ostrea edulis, Mytilus edulis, Mya 

 margarilacea, Pholas, Patella vulgaris, Natica canrena, Purpura 

 lupillus, Sec, making in all twelve or fourteen species*. 



At the north side of Croyde Bay the sea shells are very abundant 

 in the deposit ; the lower shingles expand to the thickness of nineteen 

 feet, and are found on the face of Baggy Point at various heights and 

 rising to sixty or seventy feet above high water level. 



The horizontal beds, above described, cannot have been formed by 

 accumulations of blown sand. They are stratified marine deposits, 

 differing in no respect from the sand and coarsest shingles of the 

 neighbouring beach, except in the level 3 and they perfectly demon- 

 strate an elevation of the neighbouring coast during the modern period. 



In confirmation of their views, the authors assert that the physical 

 features of the neighbouring region, indicate that kind of depression 

 in the sea level which is demonstrated by the raised beach. The 

 ancient line of sea-cliff's may be traced inland by Saunton and Braun- 

 lon towards the mouth of the Barnstaple river, passing to the east of 

 the existing marshes and dunes of blown sand. In like manner the 

 old line of cliffs, anterior to the elevation, maybe traced from Apple- 

 dore along the south side of Norton Burrows. The popple or pebble 

 beach, a remarkable ridge of large rounded blocks of stone, rising to a 

 height of seventeen feet above the sea level, and shutting out the 

 ocean from the neighbouring marsh lands, &c., of Appledore, is, in 

 connexion with the blown sands, regarded by the authors as the 

 natural and necessary consequence of a considerable elevation of the 

 coast, and as strongly confirming the views they have advanced. In 



* This list has been much augmented by the subsequent labours of Ma- 

 jor W. Harding, F.G.S. of Ilfraconib, who has in other respects coniirmedthe 

 views of the authors, and added some important facts. In the craggy cUffs 

 of the old transition rocks near Baggy Point, he has detected patches of the 

 indurated shingle, or "dry beach" as he terms it, containing modern sea 

 shells at different heights, far above the reach of the highest tides. 



