ETHERIDGE DEVONIAN EOCKS AND EOSSILS. 585 



versal general dip to the south, i. e. from Lynton or Ilfracombe on 

 the west to Croydon Hill and the Quantocks on the east, to the Culm- 

 measures south of Barnstaple, Dulvertou, and Wiveliscombe ; and I 

 hope to show, both on physical and palceontological evidence, that the 

 Lower, Atiddle, and Upper Devonian series are still the groups of 

 rocks that occupy the area assigned to them by Weaver, Murchison, 

 Sedgwick, Sharpe, Lonsdale, Phillips, and others. 



3. Dunster, Ifinehead, and PorJoch Areas. — West of the Quantock 

 HiUs and in the most northerly part of West Somerset is Grabbist 

 Hill, and Xorth Hill, also Porlock, Culbone, and Oare Hills, the three 

 latter overhanging the Bristol Channel; and the lowest beds through- 

 out all Xorth Devon and Xorth Somerset are exposed along their 

 southern flanks. It is impossible not to believe that you are here 

 examining the genuine Old Eed Sandstone of Scotland, South Wales, 

 and the Siliuian area. Coarse red, grey, and pale-yellow, and 

 mottled thick-bedded sandstone, with alternating fine-grained, flaggy 

 beds, constitute the rock-masses of these hills ; and the general dip 

 is to the north-east from 15° to 50° ; observations along theii' strike 

 give the mean dip of 35°. 



No organic remains whatever are known to occur in these sand- 

 stones. From the bent and contorted condition of the beds along a 

 given line, i. e. from the Foreland thi'ough Desolation Point to 

 Hurlestone and Greenlay Points on Xorth Hill (over ^Minehead), it 

 would appear that they are rolled from north to south, and thus 

 are explained the reversed dips occasionally noticed along this 

 line. At Hurlestone Point this rolhng is well seen, the beds in 

 the space of 50 feet being inverted, those seaward, and forming the 

 north head of the Point, dipping 10° south-east, those immediately 

 south dipping bb° north-north-west. The fault being a down-throw 

 to the south, this line of disturbance is traceable from the Foreland on 

 the west, to Quaytown and Minehead on the east, and perhaps passes 

 into the grand system of faults that occupy the bay and shore of 

 Watchet, Quantock Head, and Little Stoke. These red sandstones, 

 on assuming their southern dip, constitute the base of the series of 

 slates and grits that stretch across the country from Lynton to Tim- 

 berscombe and Dunster Park ; they underlie and are conformable to 

 the Lower Devonian, Coblentzian, or Spirifer-grits, sandstones, and 

 slates of West Somerset. 



Along the summit of North Hill the coarse-grained micaceous 

 Lower red sandstones dip north-north-east and north 18°; lq a 

 quarry near Woodcombe they dip due east 20°. 



At Greenlay Point and Minehead the beds form an anticHnal and 

 are faulted, dipping at opposite points, north 45° and south-west 15°, 

 thus agreeing with, and showing the extension of, the east and west 

 fault from Hurlestone Point to Quaytown. At Greenlay Point the 

 rocks are alternating coarse and fine-grained red, green, grey, 

 and yellow sandstones. Lower members of this red sandstone 

 series appear to the south of the Minehead valley at Lower Hop- 

 cott, where they still dip north-east 15°; they are massive beds of 

 red and grey crystalline grits, banded, and stained deep-red, from 



