598 PEOCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



dip of the slates under the red sandstones south of Brendon at Barton, 

 Cherriton, Sparhanger, and Farley, which are the Hangman red grits 

 and sandstones of "Woodabay, and the higher lands of Malacot, 

 Trentishoe, Barrow, &c., and on to the Hangman; they are from 

 800 to 1000 feet thick, and completely exposed in the cliff-sections, 

 and constitute the high Downs to the south and south-west. 



The slate rocks overhanging Watersmeet are extremely rich in 

 fossils, some of the beds being entirely composed of one species of 

 Orthis, 0. arcuata, Phill. (0. longisulcata, Phill.), a form not 

 known out of or above the Lower or Lynton group in North Devon, 

 but every where found in the upper part of the series at Waters- 

 meet, Lynton, Yalley of Rocks, AYoodabay, West Lee, Heddon's 

 Mouth, &c., in some places profusety crowded, and usually distorted. 



The entire succession of these lower slates is to be seen and 

 examined in the cliffs west of Lynmouth, especially at and under the 

 Castle Bock, Yalley of Bocks, and its overhanging escarpment; nearly 

 the whole series is fossiliferous, although the fossils are badly pre- 

 served. It is somewhat remarkable that out of the species of Bra- 

 chiopoda known in the Devonian rocks one only, Chonetes (Leptcena) 

 sordida, Sby. {C. Hardrensis, Phil.), is said to be common to these 

 Lower or Lynton beds and to the Carboniferous rocks ; in other words, 

 only one species of this group passes, up or ranges from the Devonian to 

 the Carboniferous strata. Doubt has been thrown as to this form being 

 the true C. Uardrensis, and also as to its occurrence in the Middle or 

 Ilfracombe group. It is, however, an unsatisfactory and doubtful 

 shell upon which to build any theory ; but if it be not this species, we 

 have none in common. Again, on following the series in an up- 

 ward succession from Lynmouth to Lynton by the path overhanging 

 Lynmouth, about 100 feet above the sea, and also up the main 

 road, and along the north face of the cliff, the grey bands of hard 

 crystalline limestone are seen weathering rusty and to be highly 

 fossiliferous. In these beds occur Spirifera hysterica, Schloth., P. 

 Icevicosta, Yalenc, Orthis arcuata, Phill., Favosltes cervicornis, Blainv., 

 Alveolites, crinoidal stems, &c. ; and higher still (400 feet above the 

 sea), immediately below the sharp bend in the road to Lynton, beds 

 of grey limestone occur, from 20 to 40 feet thick, containing casts 

 of numerous fossils ; these are immediately succeeded by thick grey 

 slaty beds much cleaved ; and it is in the upper part of these slates, 

 at Watersmeet and the Yalley of Eocks, that the Orth'ides and 

 Spiriferce (fee. occur. 



3. Woodahay and Heddon^s Mouth. — As the strike of the Lower or 

 Lynton slates at Lynmouth is E. by S. and N. by W., and the 

 coast-line bears east and west, it is clear that we have not their base 

 exposed, forming as they do the foreshore, and below low-water 

 mark ; and, as before mentioned, the very disturbed nature of the 

 same beds east of the river, near the anticlinal, forbids our satisfac- 

 torily obtaining it there ; so that the whole series of slates is not 

 seen, either under the North Cliffs on the precipitous face of the 

 Castle Rock, or on the eastern side of the river under Countesbury 

 Hill; and it is the southern recession and indentation of the coast- 



