538 



COAST OF DEVON. 



[Ch. XX. 





three quarters of a mile 



with, a depth of from 



100 to 150 feet, and a breadth exceeding 240 feet. At the 



ulf lie fragments of the original snr- 



bottom of this deep 



face thrown together in the wildest confusion. 



In 



conse- 



quence of lateral movements, the tract intervening between 

 the new fissnre and the sea, including the ancient nndercliff, 

 was fractured, and the whole line of sea-cliff carried bodily 



forwards for many 



c A remarkable pyramidal crag, 



F off Culverhole Point, which lately formed a distinguishing 

 landmark, has sunk from a height of about seventy to twenty 

 feet, and the main cliff, E, before more than fifty feet 

 distant from this insulated crag, is now brought almost close 

 to it. This motion of the sea-cliff has produced a farther 

 effect, which may rank among the most striking phenomena 

 of this catastrophe. The lateral pressure of the descending 

 rocks has urged the neighbouring strata, extending beneath 

 the shingle of the shore, by their state of unnatural conden- 

 sation, to burst upwards in a line parallel to the coast — 

 thus an elevated lidge, G, more than a mile in length, and 

 rising more than forty feet, covered by a confused assemblage 

 of broken strata, and immense blocks of rock, invested with 

 sea-weed and corallines, and scattered over with shells and 

 star-fish, and other productions of the deep, forms an ex- 

 tended reef in front of the present range of cliffs.'* 



irkable landslip, with a plan, 

 sections, and many fine illustrative drawings, was published 

 by Messrs. Conybeare and Buckland,f from one of which the 

 fig*. 50 has been reduced. 



rem 



>/ 



The shores which bound Tor Bay give 



way continually at many points : their waste forms the sub- 

 ject of a memoir published by Mr. Pengelly, in 1861.J He 

 has shown that thrice in the course of the last hundred 

 years it has been necessary to carry the road between Tor- 

 quay and Paignton farther inland. A solid mass of masonry, 

 built for the protection of the present road, was swept away 

 by the waves in a storm, in October 1859, at which time the 





tlx 







Sfic 



i 



. 



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* Vnv. W. D. Conybeare, letter dated 

 Axminsi.T, Doc. 21, 1839. 



t London, J. Murray, 1840. 



} Geologist, vol. iv. p. 447. 1861. 



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