ETHERIDQE — DEVONIAN ROCKS AND FOSSILS. 



587 



able. It is singular how destitute the slates of West Somerset 

 are of molluseau remains and other associated life, though it may be 

 accounted for from the fact that the largely developed series of 

 argillaceous rocks of this region were accumulated in a deep sea, and 

 probably in an area of depression, and hence the preponderance of 

 Coelenterata in the definitely marked line of limestones striking from 

 Ilfracombe and Combe Martin to jSTettlecombe and Withycombe ; 

 and, again, the persistency of the conditions under which these lime- 

 stones were deposited, along so extensive a line, clearly indicates 

 deep water, depression, and a fringing reef-like growth of coral- 

 masses. Fourteen species of corals are known to occur in these 

 lenticular bands of calcareo-argillaceous deposits in West Somerset, 

 at Withycombe, Nettlecombe, Goldsoncot, Roadwater, and other 

 places in that area ; and the same facies is preserved in all the 

 limestones. 



Fig. 3. — Section in a Quarry at Wheddon Cross, sliowlng the lenticu- 

 larly arranged limestone hands in the midst of the slates. 



At Wheddon Cross the beds dip 45° south ; and this angle of dip 

 appears to be general (south of Exton). Continuing our examina- 

 tion of the limestones and slates from Wheddon Cross and Luckwell, 

 both along the road and down the valley of the Exe, beyond Eyeson 

 Hill, we are still in the lower part of the Middle or Ilfracombe beds, 

 or that division of them which rests upon the upper part of the 

 series of red grits at the Little Hangman &c., and which is well 

 seen in ascending order along the coast from West Challacombe 

 through Combe Martin Bay, Watermouth, Widmouth, Helesborough, 

 and Ilfracombe to Lee Bay, and upon which the Upper division, 

 comprising the glossy slates of Morte Hoe (and Lundy), sets in. 

 South of Eyeson Hill, the river- and road-sections give unmistakeable 

 proof that we are in, and crossing the strike of, these grey glossy 

 Morte-Hoe slates, their physical condition and marked characters 

 being most prominent. In the gorge of the river, at the picturesque 

 village of Winsford, two miles west of the main road to Dulverton, 

 and near the bridge, fine sections occur, showing the dip of the same 

 beds to be S. 60°, and the cleavage vertical. From this point south, 

 through Exton and Clammer, and as far as Browford, the dip is in 

 the same direction. These slates here are frequently folded, and 

 exhibit a reversed dip, but no local dislocation or faulting between 

 Browford and Oxgrove. This reversion therefore seems due to ex- 

 tensive undulations of the strata ; for, west of Shircombe, these pale- 

 grey fissile slates dip 65° S., at Browford S.E. by S.50°, at Kent's mill 

 the same, and 100 yards north of Chilly-Bridge gate they still dipS. 80°; 



