288 Mr. Williams on the raised Beaches in Barnstaple Bay. 



angles, that I had great difficulty in detaching a small fragment. Its exposed 

 surface is six feet long and three feet deep; but I could not ascertain its real 

 dimensions, as its further extremity is concealed by the incumbent sandstone 

 of the beachj and its base by shingle. It is flesh-coloured, like much of the 

 Grampian granite, and is traversed by two veins of red-coloured, compact 

 felspar, intersecting each other. In my opinion it is neither Lundy, Dart- 

 moor, nor Cornish granite. 



As the beaches show few or no evidences of disturbance, resting in hori- 

 zontal unconformity, on highly inclined slate rocks, I inferred that the move- 

 ment which eEFected their elevation was gentle, or that a great area had been 

 simultaneously raised en masse. With this impression, I examined the di- 

 strict for phenomena, which might corroborate the hypothesis, that the pre- 

 sent position of the beach was due to gradual elevation, and not to a depres- 

 sion of the level of the ocean. When we examine the submerged forest ex- 

 tending from the mouth of the Parret to Minehead, can we deny that there 

 must have been a subsidence of this line of coast at a recent geological period ? 

 If we continue our researches in the marshes, about seven or eight miles 

 to the eastward, we observe at Benthill and in King's Sedgmoor, sand-banks 

 and ancient sea-beaches, containing an abundance of recent marine shells. 

 Looking at these sand-banks on the one hand, and the submerged forest, con- 

 taining stags' horns, hazel-nuts and leaves on the other, I apprehend that 

 the phenomena can only be explained by partial elevations and depressions 

 of the land, and not by lowering of the ocean's level. The distance may 

 be fifty miles between the submerged forest and the beaches of Barnstaple 

 and Bideford Bay; but when we consider the great scale on which Nature 

 conducts and has conducted her operations, I trust, I am not straining- 

 probability too far, when I assume that the oscillations and vibrations which 

 could elevate the old bank or beach at Santon Downend, and a great adja- 

 cent area of land, would extend along the whole coast. 



Bleaden, near Cross, 

 December 31st, 1836. 



