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XXIV. — Extract from a Letter, by the Rev. David Williams, F.G.S., 

 on the raised Beaches in Barnstaple or Bideford Bay. 



[Read March 8th, 1837.] 



IHE first beach extends from Rraunton, or Saunton, Burrows, (where its 

 eastern limit is concealed by ancient drift sand) to Downend Point, round 

 which it winds, and flanks the southern promontory of Croyd Bay. On the 

 north coast of this little bay are vestiges of another beach, extending in patches 

 from near the lime-kiln, to the bold and bluff headland called Bag-gy Point. 

 In consequence of its prolongation into deeper water, and its having been 

 consequently exposed to a more constant and heavy action of the sea, it is, in 

 places, nearly all removed ; but enough remains to show, that it once extended 

 a long way between Croyd Sands and Baggy Point. In both instances the 

 beaches contain abundance of recent marine shells, and atford a sufficiently 

 compact and tough sandstone to be used in the construction of boundary walls. 

 They frequently present the diagonal lines mentioned in the paper of Professor 

 Sedgwick and Mr. Murchison, and so common in the new red sandstone. 



That these beaches have been raised from five to ten feet, or that the level 

 of the Atlantic has been depressed to that amount, I have no doubt; for on a 

 careful examination of the slate rocks, at their immediate contact with the 

 present base of the ancient beach, I found, in many places, countless Balani 

 on the surface of the slates, yet so entangled and cemented in the sandstone, 

 that, on detaching a mass of the latter, the Balani were torn off the slate. It 

 is probable, that they may be also found at higher levels under the sandstone, 

 as at points where I noticed them, the beach had been denudated horizontally 

 at least twenty-five feet. It is certain, however, that they may be seen from 

 five to ten feet above the level, where the living Balani exist on the same slate 

 rocks; and there is a considerable interval between the living and the dead, 

 where none occur. 



Another fact in corroboration of the relative changes of level, as regards 

 the sea^and the sand-cliff, is a magnificent granite block at the base of the 

 sandstone, and resting directly on the slate rock, but above high-water mark. 

 It is so perfectly smooth and close-grained, and so rounded at its edges and 



