16 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Nov. 5, 



The same prevailing northerly dip is seen on both sides of the Fowey 

 River, and is continued along the coast to the headland on the south- 

 west side of the Looe River. A highly fossiliferous series of beds, 

 striking nearly east and west, occupies an irregular trough, the south 

 side of which is represented by the cliffs between Fowey and Looe. 

 We think that the confusion of the Cornish sections which we re- 

 marked near St. Austell is extended to Looe, where there is a great 

 north and south break, beyond which the position of the slate-rocks 

 is less disturbed ; so that a section made from the granites near St. 

 Cleer, through Liskeard, and thence down to the coast on the east 

 side of the Looe River, seems to present an ascending series, as re- 

 gular as the ascending series we meet with in Devonshire, between 

 Dartmoor and the south coast of that county near Plymouth Sound. 



In the 'Transactions of the Geological Society of Cornwall' are some 

 interesting notices of the fossils found near this part of the coast*. 

 Through the kindness of Mr. Box and Mr. Hicks of Looe, and Mr. 

 Giles of Liskeard, a very fine series of specimens was submitted to 

 Prof. M'Coy, and he hesitated not to pronounce them all Devonian. 

 There was not one characteristic Upper Silurian species among them. 

 We also procured from Mr. Lochrin (one of the Coast-guard, who is 

 a good naturalist and an intrepid collector, treading in the steps of 

 Mr. Peach) several good specimens from the so-called fish-beds which 

 range from Fowey, through Lantivet Bay and Polperro, to Looe. The 

 supposed Fishes t are Sponges of the ^emxs Steganodictyum, M'Coy, 

 which have been figured and described, and will appear in the next 

 * Cambridge Fasciculus.' One or two other species, which are new, 

 will also appear in that forthcoming work. Bellerophon hisulcatus 

 (erroneously marked as a Silurian species in some of the collections) 

 abounds in this part of the series. It is a true Devonian fossil :j:. In a 

 sketch like the present it is impossible for me to dwell on the mineral 

 structure of the several groups ; but I may just allude to some very 

 singular beds of green and reddish slates, alternating with hard quart- 

 zose beds, which appear on the coast near Looe. They are overlaid, 

 in the trough above-indicated, by the softer Devonian slates, which 

 in some places are calcareous, and abound, here and there, with fossils. 



The new roads, cut through the Devonian slates north of Looe, 

 give many instructive sections, which were not visible in 1836, when 

 I followed the general strike of the beds from the neighbourhood of 

 Plymouth to this part of the coast. In the cliff at East Looe 

 the dip is about 30° East of true South, at an angle of 40°. The 

 beds in the cliff are composed of hard quartzose bands, alternating 

 with calcareous slates, in which we may often see earthy and cellular 

 lines, that mark the presence of numerous fossils. Following the 

 course of the river to the north of Looe we found a large, half- con- 

 cretionary mass of limestone, which reminded us of the similar masses 

 (provincially C2ii\[tdi junks) which are so commonly found among the 



* See vol. vi. pp. 147, 220, 276, &c. 



t See Trans. Geol. Soc. Cornwall, vol. vi. pp. 29, 79, and 319, and vol. vii. p. 17 

 et seg., p. 57, &c. and pi. 1 and 2. 



X See Romer ; Verst. Hartz-Gebirg. tab. 9. fig. 1. 



