1869.] 



WfllTAKER SOUTH-DEVON '^ NEW RED." 



153 



masses, that little is to be seen below the " White Lias " until we 

 pass to the west of the great landslip of 1839 at Dowlands. The 

 cliff is then clearer, and shows a set of evenly-bedded greenish clays, 

 with black shales, stone-beds, and layers of hard marl (Rhsetic Beds). 

 Here Mr. Pengelly found the well-known bone-bed. Lower down 

 some of the layers of clay have a reddish colour ; and there is a 

 passage downwards into "New Red " marl, which has greenish layers 

 in its top part. The beds rise westward in gentle waves, bringing 

 up lower beds in that direction, and the green layers decrease in 

 number downwards, until at the mouth of the Axe there are but a 

 few thin ones, nearly all the marl being of the usual deep red. This 

 section, therefore, shows a passage from the " New Eed " into the 

 Bhsetic Beds, and favours the view that the latter may be classed 

 with the former just as well as with the Lias. 



Leaving out these passage-beds, however, the red marl of Seaton 

 is the uppermost part of the " New Red " of the South Devon coast ; 

 and it is, I believe, the only part that crops out along the cliffs west- 

 ward to Sidmouth, where red sandstone rises up from beneath it in 

 the cliff just east of the river. As the Greensand rests unconform- 

 ably on the " New Red," it would be difficult, and perhaps impos- 

 sible, to measure the thickness of the marl, and the more so as the 

 section is much hidden by fallen masses. 



This highest bed of marl does not come down to the sea-level 

 westward of Sidmouth, and, indeed (except for a small patch 

 noticed by Mr. Pengelly above the sandstone in Ladraham Bay), 



Fig. 1 . — View of High Peak from the East. 



7y 



h. Grreensand (overgrown, j-ough slope). 



2. E,ed Marl, much fui'rowed by streams &c. 



3. Eed Sandstone, roughly bedded, much less furrowed. 



ends off altogether in about a mile and a half. It forms, however, 

 the greater part of High Peak, a fine mass, which is a good example 

 of the way cliffs weather from above (fig. 1). The sandstone at the 

 bottom is able to withstand the direct assault of the sea better than 

 the marl above to resist the gentler attacks of subaerial actions ; the 

 marl is worn away into a number of furrows that mostly end at the 

 top of the sandstone, which latter also forms a large isolated rock, 

 surrounded by the sea (except at low water ?). 



