Geology of the South-east of Devonshire. 



447 



the valley of the Sid, Salcombe, Weston, and Branscombe, the collection consists of 

 chalk-flints, flint-breccia and sandstone, and materials from the harder beds of the 

 greensand. These accumulations are not confined to valleys, but invest the slopes 

 and crown the summits of many minor ridges, as those which lead up to the Hal- 

 dons. In thus classing together the accumulations on the high grounds with those 

 in the bottoms of valleys, it is not implied that they are exactly of the same geolo- 

 gical age, or referable to some particular period of dispersion, but that they are the 

 results of those agents, which, for a long period, must have been in operation over 

 this district, and produced the actual configuration of surface. 



Fig. 5. 



New Red Sandstone. 



Section near Dawlish of regenerated new red sand resting on a recent marine deposit. 



The above cut represents a road-section near the summit of the hill west of 

 Dawlish, A bed of marine debris rests on the uneven surface of the new red sand- 

 stone, and above it, is a thick mass of regenerated new red sand, in regular layers, 

 but without a single pebble of chert or flint, and the uppermost mass is another 

 thick bed of debris. 



In the cliffs east of Dawlish is a similar thick deposit of pure, regenerated new 

 red sand, resting on a bed of materials from the chalk and greensand series. 



§ 4. Uppermost beds of Haldon. — The outline of the Haldon and Blackdown hills, 

 viewed from any point which commands their range, is strikingly horizontal, and 

 their upper surfaces present table-lands, from which deep combes and valleys, de- 

 scending to the level of the sea, have been excavated through various formations. 

 The uppermost deposits, of inconsiderable thickness in both ranges, correspond ; 

 but in the nature and condition of their materials they are very distinct from what 

 occurs immediately beneath them. The line of contact presents an irregular surface, 

 similar to that exhibited where the subjacent beds rest on chalk or greensand. 



This superficial accumulation consists principally of flints, but it contains in places, 

 and rather plentifully, fragments of red porphyry, altered slates, black schorly 

 granite and quartz, from Dartmoor; all the latter being rounded, like marine shingle, 

 and the whole mass having an exceedingly water-worn character. (PL XLII. 



3m2 



