on the Raised Beach in Barnstaple or Bideford Bay. 281 



the remaining- four coarse and hard shingle. Occasionally, however, a small 

 band of fine shingle, or a pebble of considerable size, may be met with in the 

 upper portion. 



There is no exaggeration in stating, that much of this modern deposit is 

 quite as difficult to break as the ancient Silurian rock on which it rests. By 

 its texture, it will resist the ordinary action of weather ; but the surge, in vio- 

 lent storms, beating against the lower portions of it, has worn them into 

 caverns (see vignette), exposing', in their interior, the edges of the shelly beds; 

 whilst over them is seen the successive beds of sandstone and sand, above 

 noticed. At the point where these appearances are presented in greatest 

 perfection, the total thickness of the beach amounted to about 36 feet; which, 

 with the overlying drift, and the inferior ledge of Silurian rocks, gave a height 

 of 40 or 50 feet. By reference to the vignette, it will be perceived that the 

 bottom of the beach accommodates itself to all the irregularities of the subja- 

 cent rock, just as sand and gravel are arranged upon the broken edges of the 

 chalk in the south-eastern parts of England. 



The deposit we have been describing-, is continuous from Saunton Burrows, 

 where it disappears under the blown sand, to the south end of Croyde Bay, on 

 approaching which the cliff gradually subsides. Throughout the area of that 

 sandy bay, the rocky and high ground recedes from the shore, and there are 

 no traces of the beach for nearly a mile ; but on the northern side of the 

 bay it is again met with near some lime kilns, where the lower shingle beds 

 are perhaps fuller of shells than in any other part of their course. Here 

 the coarse shingles, in parts expanded to the thickness of 19 feet, rise rapidly 

 to the north, from a point three or four feet above the sea-level, to a height of 

 60 or 70 feet above high-water mark, resting on the rugged and abrupt face 

 of Baggy Point — one of the boldest and loftiest headlands on this coast. It 

 is worthy of remark, that it is near the point of greatest elevation, that 

 the materials composing the beach are most coarse and brecciated, and in the 

 greatest quantity. 



Such is a brief sketch of the nature and arrangement of this deposit, the 

 position of which naturally leads us to offer a few remarks on the causes by 

 which it has been produced. To this end, we shall endeavour to show, 

 1st, that the configuration of the neighbouring coast harmonizes with the 

 supposition that this beach has been raised (within the modern aera) from 

 beneath the sea to the height at which we now find it ; 2dly, that similar 

 phenomena, on the coasts of Devonshire and Cornwall^ and in other parts of 

 England, agree with and confirm this hypothesis. 



