50 PEOCEEDI]S"GS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



habitants of that period resorted to the outcrop of the chalk for 

 flint nodules from which to fabricate such implements as they re- 

 quired of that material. During the process of manufacture many of 

 these implements were rejected as incomplete, or were subsequently 

 lost over the limited area skirting the coast-line of that era, which 

 may have been dry land at low water. 



This appears to have been the first era of this manufacture. The 

 second epoch finds the race of men inhabiting the area within some 

 miles of the chalk outcrop possessed of somewhat increased mental 

 and manual ability. They no longer manufactured the flint nodules 

 procurable alo.ag the coast-line, where, doubtless, they were most 

 abundant, but they resorted to the absolute chalk outcrop, and 

 carried away with them into the interior the primary flint nodules, 

 and then chipped them into flakes more nearly resembling the 

 arrow-head of subsequent times than those fabricated by their 

 progenitors. 



I believe it quite possible that the leaf-shaped flint flakes of this 

 second epoch, such as those found in the bed of the river Bunn, at 

 Toome Bridge, were known to and used by the earliest of the his- 

 toric races in Ireland, and by them worked into those delicately 

 chipped and symmetrically formed winged arrow-heads, spear-, and 

 javelin-heads which are found so often, associated with rude pottery, 

 beads of amber, glass, and shells, in our sepulchral tumuli and mega- 

 lithic chambers. 



2. On the " Wateestoke Beds " of the Ketjper, containing Pseudo- 

 MORPHOus Crystals of Chlorlde of Sodium:, in the Cofis^ties of 

 Somerset and Devoid. By G. Wareln-g Ormerod, M. A., F.G.S. 



(Eead Junel7, 1868^.) 



During a recent visit to Devon, the Eev. W. S. Symonds stated that 

 he thought he had recognized " the Waterstone beds " of the Keuper 

 at Exmouth, this being, it is believed, the first time that they have 

 been noticed in this county. As the point, however, was not clear, 

 I devoted a few days to a cursory examination of the Bed Sandstone 

 from Culverhole point, where it crops out from under the Lias, to 

 Exmouth. As some months will probably elapse before I can make 

 a close examination of them, I send the following particulars as 

 marking the position of the rocks of this district in the " Trias." 

 Between Culverhole point and Seaton I could not find "Waterstone. 

 Prom Branscombe Mouth to Weston Mouth I was not able to exa- 

 mine the coast. Between Weston Mouth and Salcombe Mouth many 

 beds of gypsum appear in the cliff; and between Salcombe Mouth 

 and the river Sid several beds of very fully ripple-marked " Water- 

 stone" occur, as also pseKclomorj^Jioiis crystals of Chloride of Sodium. 

 This, I believe, is the first instance of the occurrence of such crys- 

 tals in Devonshire. The coast between Sidmouth and Budleigh- . 

 Salterton has not been examined by me. Between Budleigh-Salterton 



* For the other Communications read at tliis Evening Meeting, see Quart. 

 Journ. Greol. Soc. vol. xxiv. p. 484, 



