438 Mr. Austen on the 



from the high grounds immediately above. These beds are not similar to those which 

 in rocky districts occur at the base of cliiFs and precipitous slopes ; and the shape of 

 the fragments (usually composed of flat shaly limestone as at Hope) , as well as the 

 angles presented by the surface of the accumulations, which are too small to favour 

 the descent of fragments of even much rounder forms, oppose such an origin. 

 The transferring of earthy matter from the sides of hills into their valleys is con- 

 tinually going on, and to an extent much greater than is usually supposed, but the 

 accumulations which result from this process consist only of minutely subdivided 

 materials ; whilst those of the fragmentary beds, above noticed, seem to have required 

 for their conveyance some agent of greater power than any at present in operation. 

 The condition of the materials and their strictly local character sufficiently evince, 

 that no denuding forces can have acted here ; yet these accumulations rest on bare 

 surfaces without the intervention of any mould, nor is there any mould or earthy 

 matter mixed up with them ; and it is only since they were collected, that we find 

 proofs of disintegration by the action of meteoric agents, and traces of animal and 

 vegetable life, of which the superficial mould is the mixed product. 



Changes of Elevation and Depression. 



§ 2. Submerged forest-ground. — Beneath the waters of a considerable portion of 

 Tor Bay is a tract in portions of which, exposed at neap-tides, stumps of trees of 

 large growth project above the surface, and after gales of wind have removed the 

 sand, they are found to be firmly fixed by their roots in the soil below. This fact 

 has been often mentioned. Leland in his Itinerary says, " Fisschar men hath divers 

 times taken up with ther nettes in Torre Bay musens of hartes, wherby men judge 

 that yn tymes paste it hath been forest ground," and it is also noticed by De Luc*. 

 At Broad Sands in the same bay, a similar deposit is well exhibited between high 

 and low water marks, passing on one side beneath the shingle of the beach, and on 

 the other beneath the sands of the bay ; and certain black beds, but for the occur- 

 rence of freshwater shells {Cxjclades, Paludina), might easily be mistaken for an ac- 

 cumulation of sea-weed ; the bones of deer and oxen are also readily found. These 

 beds exactly resemble those peaty and decayed vegetable accumulations formed 

 everywhere in low situations. Both at the Tor Abbey and Broad Sands they rest 

 on lacustrine mud, which at the latter place contains the shells of the Paludina 

 impura in great abundance ; at Goodrington are Hkewise traces of lacustrine marl. 



^ 3. Ancient alluvia. — An ancient forestial condition, such as even history in- 

 forms us all this country presented, would necessarily occasion a greater conden- 

 sation of aqueous vapour and more copious streams than now flow through this 

 part of the county ; but there are phsenomena in South Devon on much too exten- 

 * Geol. Travels, English Trans., vol. ii.p. 303, 1811. 



