South-Western Part of Somersetshire. 341 



the Parret the distance between high and low water mark is in some 

 places above two miles. From the town of Minehead there is a 

 tract of low marsh land, extending eastward about four miles along 

 the coast, and about a mile in breadth in most places from the sea 

 to the base of the hills. Were it not for a bank of pebbles which the 

 sea has thrown up on the beach, this land would be overflowed every 

 tide ; and this even now generally occurs when the tides are unusually 

 high. A similar tract of marsh land occurs in Porlock Bay, which 

 is equally protected by a very great shingle bank, divided into three 

 terraces rising the one above the other, the highest part of the 

 bank being not less than forty feet above low water mark. The 

 pebbles, which all along the shore are of the same materials as the 

 cliffs in the open part of Porlock Bay, are of various sizes, but 

 they are in general flattened spheroids of about six inches in di- 

 ameter ; as they approach the cliffs at Hurstone Point, they become 

 gradually less, and close to the cliffs, they are of the shape and size of 

 a pigeon's egg, and nearly all alike. 



Dunkery beacon is stated in the report of the Ordnance Tri- 

 gonometrical Survey to be 1668 feet above the level of the sea, 

 and, with the exception of Cawsand beacon, in the northern part 

 of Dartmoor Forest, which is stated in the same report to be 1792 

 feet, is I believe, the highest land in the West of England. 



Grabbist hill I found, by barometrical measurement, to be 906 

 feet above low water mark. The highest part of the ridge is 

 immediately above the village of Wotton Courtney. I made use of 

 Sir Henry Englefield's mountain barometer, and I have calculated 

 the heights by the formula he gives. 



North hill above Bratton, which appeared to me the highest 

 part of that ridge, I found to be 824 feet above low water mark. 



