535 



A paper "On the raised beaches of Saunton Downend and Baggy 

 Point ;" by the Rev. David Williams, F.G.S., was then read. 



The tirst of these breaches extends from Braunton Burrow^s to Down- 

 end Point ; the other on the N. coast of Croyd Bay, from near the 

 limekilns to half way to Baggy Point. These beaches were described 

 in the paper read by Professor Sedgwick and Mr. Murchison on the 

 15th December, 1836 ; and Mr. Williams in this paper fully agrees 

 with the conclusions drawn by those authors, relative to the beaches 

 having been raised. 



In addition, however, to the proofs afforded by the abundance of re- 

 mains ofexisting British marine shells in these accumulations, cemented 

 together by calcareous infiltration into a tough sandstone, he stated 

 that he had discovered in many places, from 6 to 10 feet, above the tidal 

 level, and at the line of contact of the beaches with the old slate rocks 

 of the district, countless Balani attached to the surface of the latter, 

 but so firmly entangled in the substance of the former as to be sepa- 

 rated with its fragments. A large granite boulder also rests on the 

 slate, and is involved in the sandstone above any high-water mark. 

 In support also of the land having been raised and not the sea de- 

 pressed, he referred to the submarine forests of Somersetshire, in the 

 prolongation of the same coast from Blue Anchor to the Parret ; and 

 argued that their position could not be accounted for by a subsidence 

 in the sea level, but by an unequal movement of the land. 



A communication by Mr. James de Carle Sowerby on his new genus 

 of fossil shells, Tropaeum, was then read. 



This fossil is described by Mr. Sowerby as an involute chambered 

 shell with sinuated septa; the whorls free, sometimes very distant; 

 siphon in the external margin. The natural place of the genus is be- 

 tween Hamites and Scaphites, and the shells which may be grouped 

 with Tropaeum, have been hitherto ranked as Hamites, but have no 

 sudden bend which maybe compared to a hook. The species hitherto 

 found have been obtained from the gault and green sand. The 

 species (Tropeeum Bovoerhankii) described in the paper were obtained 

 by Mr. Bowerbank in the Isle of Wight, and were found in the lower 

 green sand on the south side of the Island. 



