1S61.] KEY BOYEY DErOSIT. 17 



the basin present traces of a horizontal ridge at from 130 to loO 

 feet above the sea, particularly the older and firmer formations, — 

 for instance, Buckland Point, Xnowles, tho hill over KingskerswcU 

 Church, west of the road, and many others, indicating, it may be 

 supposed, the line of ^Yash near the surface of the lake around its 

 margin. 



It is easy to conceive the chain of hills around tho basin to havo 

 been unbroken at some former period, and the consequent existence 

 of a lake, extending from Bovey-Tracey to near Torr, ramifying far 

 up into the lateral valleys, receiving into it the rivers and streams 

 that noAv run over its bed. Eitlier by tlie advance of the sea from 

 without, or, more probably, by the gradual opening of a channel 

 between tlie hills behind Hackney and Buckland Point from within, 

 by the action of the surface-wash of the lake (the waves of which 

 must have attained considerable power, driven by north or west 

 winds on the point indicated), the lake grew shallower, until it ulti- 

 mately disappeared. 



In order to prove beyond doubt that the surplus water of the lake 

 discliarged itself at the point mentioned (Lawe's Bridge), it would have 

 been desirable to fmd some beds of sand or gravel, indicating the bed 

 of a river between Lawe's Bridge and the sea ; but the loose brick- 

 earth forbids. Corroborative evidence, however, of the former chan- 

 nel is found in the bed of peat * on the beach, under Torr Abbey ; 

 showing, no doubt, that a small lake had existed here on the course 

 of the river, and which, after the river had ceased to run in this 

 direction, became filled with a growth of psat. On the beach, too, 

 near the peat, are spots of very white sandy clay, resembling that of 

 the Bovey deposit, whiter, I think, than any which could be washed 

 from the Red Sandstone cliff; and these may be small portions of a 

 larger bed, deposited by the river before the sea had penetrated so 

 far inland. 



The evidence offered by the strata of the Bovey deposit itself is, 

 perhaps, the most conclusive as to the existence of this lake ; the 

 more prominent facts to be gathered from the plan and sections being 

 these : — 



1. That the Bovey deposit is composed of various beds almost 

 identical with the component parts of granite. 



2. That the strata run, for the most part, parallel with an ex- 

 tended outline of the marginal hills, and dip from the sides towards 

 tho centre of the basin, — the nearer the centre, the greater being 

 the dip. 



3. That the finer material is deposited towards the sides, and tho 

 coarser towards the centre. 



4. That where the basin contracts in widtli, the finer beds con- 

 tract in thickness, and sometimes disappear ; on the contrary, where 

 the basin widens the purest and most regular beds of clay arc found. 



5. That the northern part of the deposit is at first irregular, 

 and composed of coarser substances than the central and lower 

 portions. 



* Bones of Deer have been found in thi.^ peat. 

 VOL. XVIII. PAltX I. C 



