﻿YoL 64.J LOWEFv SANDSTONES OP THE EXETER DISTRICT. 497 



the hills, among the rocks of which any contemporary animals 

 would be most likely to find congenial lurking-places. 



Two of the quarries lie close together, about half a mile north- 

 east of the village of Broadclyst, and it is probably the more 

 northern of these of which Dr. Shapter records as yielding some 

 specimens of ripple-marked stones, tracings of annelids, ' the claw- 

 like footmarks of two species of small crustaceans and obscure 

 impressions of other objects (Posidonia).' ^ This last suggestion 

 opened up a possibility that the mantle of sandstone might have 

 been penetrated, and some of the underlying Culm have been 

 reached at a spot where basement Culm happened to come up. I 

 have therefore examined the quarry and rubbish, but failed to find 

 a single fragment of Culm-rock of any kind. Whatever the ' claw- 

 like footmarks ' may have been, they must have belonged to the 

 * Lower Sandstones.' 



The third quarry in this district lies nearer to Stoke Hill, about 

 a third of a mile east-north-east of Poltimore Church. It is 

 mentioned in the Geological-Survey Memoir ^ as follows : — 



' At about a quarter of a mile east of Poltimore a large quarry, said to have 

 been worked to a depth of 100 feet from the surface, exposed evenly-laminated 

 brown and blackish rock-sand on brown and reddish sandstone in layers 

 averaging 2 inches thick in the upper 4 feet, 3 to 7 inches in the next 5 feet, 

 and below that attaining to a foot in thickness. A workman stated that the 

 bottom beds were thick, and had been used in the construction of bridges over 

 the London and South-Western Railway, as the rock hardens on exposure. 

 The upper beds are used for hedging, etc. The surfaces of the laminag in the 

 brown and blackish roc^k are stained red. The dip appeared to be N. 40° W. 

 at an angle of 17°. Unless the planes are due to false bedding on a large 

 scale, it appears probable that the high dip is due to the proximity of a fault.' 



This quarry has been recently reopened ' by a firm of stone- 

 masons, Messrs. CoUard & Sons, of Exeter, who are raising excellent 

 stone in some quantity. 



Having heard that work had been recommenced, and bearing in 

 mind Dr. Shapter's record for a spot only a mile away, as well as 

 the general suitability of the place for the preservation of organic 

 traces, it was arranged that the quarry should be visited on May 

 the 9th by our College Field-Club. On reaching the excavation, it 

 was seen that the method of working is conceived on correct prin- 

 ciples. The stone is lifted in large slabs, stratum after stratum, 

 so that considerable areas of the original surfaces are laid bare. 



T^o traces, however, even of ripple-marks could be detected on 

 the extensive surfaces exposed in the quarry, and the workmen 

 reported in answer to enquiries that they had never seen any marks 

 upon the Stone. But the smooth curving surfaces were so strongly 

 suggestive of accumulation on a gently shelving shore (some of the 

 dip being probably original), that I felt it impossible to be satisfied 

 without further search, and turned to examine a large quantity of 

 stone which stood stacked not far away, awaiting removal. In a 

 few minutes I was rewarded by finding a slab with undoubted 



1 ' The Climate of the South of Devon ' 2nd ed. (1862) p. 87. 

 - ' The Geology of the Country around Exeter' 1902, p. 28. 



