236 ME. CLEMENT EEID ON THE [^^J 1 898, 



and Greensand chert. Towards Haccombe numerous large blocks 

 of Greensand chert are obtained ; but close examination shows 

 that these are water worn masses, not blocks weathered out of solid 

 Greensand. The same locality yields large Chalk-flints. Here 

 again the supposed Cretaceous gravel is evidently the gravelly base 

 of the Tertiary deposits. 



West of the Aller Brook similar gravels are found close to the 

 Waterworks Eeservoir in Newton Abbot. The pit exhibits 13 feet 

 of coarse gravel interstratified with whitish sand, the gravel being 

 mainly composed of Chalk-flints, with a few large blocks of Green- 

 sand chert, some Culm Measure grit, and many quartz-pebbles. 

 This gravel, and that seen in the large pit close to Wolborough 

 Church, are clearly marginal deposits dipping sharply beneath the 

 pottery clays which lie a short distance towards the south-east. 



About 3 miles north-west of Newton Abbot lies the most 

 westerly of these supposed Cretaceous outliers. Several large 

 sand-pits have been opened near Lower Staplehill, and one of these 

 shows a clear section of the gravel resting at a high angle on 

 Devonian slates and passing beneath the lower beds of the pipe- 

 clay. The gravel at this point is largely composed of quartz, 

 veined grit, radiolarian chert, and igneous rock, but I also found 

 in it several masses of Greensand chert, and two rolled Chalk-flints 

 like those of Haldon. Thus the whole of the supposed low-ljdng 

 Greensand outliers contain derivative masses of Chalk-flint, and are 

 of Tertiary age. 



With regard to the age of the pipeclay and lignite of Bovey, it 

 is difficult yet to speak with confidence. Mr. Starkie Gardner has 

 pointed out that the flora is probably of Bagshot age, not Miocene 

 as stated by Heer, and the resemblance of the deposits and of their 

 fl.ora to the undoubted Bagshot of Dorset is most striking. Still 

 one cannot yet say that the botanical evidence is conclusive, for the 

 species are few and greatly need re-examination. Other fossils 

 are almost entirely absent. 



The general conclusions arrived at from my recent work in 

 Devon and Dorset are therefore : — 1st, That the supposed littoral 

 Cretaceous rocks near Dartmoor are Eocene, and that no trace of 

 a Cretaceous shore-line is there visible. 2nd, That, as has been 

 for some time maintained, the Bovey Beds are Eocene, not Miocene. 

 3rd, That the high-level plateau-gravels of Haldon, like those of 

 Black Down in Dorset, and probably those also of the Cretaceous 

 hills between the two districts, are of Lower Bagshot date, and 

 mark the course of the old Eocene river. 



Discussion. 



Mr. A. E. Saltee regretted that the Author had not illustrated 

 his paper by sections and specimens of the very interesting and 

 varied constituents of the gravel - deposits described. He had 



