1866.] 



JIJKES OLD BED SANDSTONE AND DEVONIAN. 



353 



This sandstone might be either 

 part of the Old Red Sandstone 

 or a Coomhola grit. No rock 

 was to be seen for three miles 

 south of this, on or near to the 

 road to Simonsbath, until I came 

 to a place where the road crossed 

 a little rocky ravine with a small 

 brook, which the driver declared 

 was the head of the Exe *. 



The rock shown here was a 

 bluish-grey, shining, clay-slate, 

 precisely like some parts of the 

 Carboniferous Slate of Ireland, 

 which appeared to dip south at 

 10°. Near Simonsbath similar 

 slate, but paler, appeared to dip 

 south at 30°. At both places the 

 cleavage dips south at 70° or 75°, 

 and as there were no decided grit 

 bands, and no layers of fossils, 

 or any appearance of fossils at 

 all, it was with some doubt that 

 I decided on the dip of the beds. 



The section in fig. 12 will show 

 the above facts in a diagram- 

 matic form, starting from a point 

 a mile east of Lymmouth and 

 crossing the country to Simons- 

 bath. 



The green little open valley 

 of Simonsbath was very similar 

 in aspect to valleys in the Car- 

 boniferous Slate in Ireland, and 

 I greatly regret that I was un- 

 fortunately prevented from re- 

 turning here, as I intended, to 

 trace the Barle down to the part 

 where it runs in a deeper and 

 wilder glen through the Old Red 

 Sandstone north of Dulverton; 

 for it is there that I should most 

 hope to find sufficient exposures 



* The people at Simonsbath assured 

 me that this was the place called 

 Prayway, which, on the Ordnance 

 map, is placed at the head of another 

 stream. The map was, indeed, nearly 

 useless here, as neither the roads, ri- 

 vers, nor features of ground marked 

 on it agreed with the existing ones. 



