﻿CONCLUSION. 



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characteristic of this group, as compared with that both above and below it, might be the 

 frequent presence of good limestone, which is almost totally absent in both the Linton and 

 Mortc scries. The clay-slate at a short distance south of the town gives way to a yellowish 

 shale, much quarried for building-purposes, and it is a question with me if this shale does 

 not mark the line of commencement of the Morte beds, running as it does apparently in 

 the general line of stratification of the country about east-south-east from a point near 

 Lee, where, according to the coast-section given by Dc la Bechc, that group begins. 



" The general inclination of the strata being east-south-east, as the coast-line from 

 Ilfracombe to Watermouth runs pretty nearly east-north-east, very good sections are seen 

 along it. There is a rather extensive fossil fauna, but the organisms are, as a rule, very 

 imperfect, being mostly in the condition of casts, which, owing to the peculiar nature of the 

 rock, are principally shown on the weathered surface of the beds. 1 have found between 

 forty and fifty different species of one sort and another, and, though many of them are 

 hitherto undeterminable by reason of imperfection, still enough can be identified to 

 place the group in its proper relation to the formation of which it is a part. 



" It may here be observed, that the North Devon stratification presents a regular 

 sequence from its lowest beds at the Foreland, beyond Lynmouth, to the Carboniferous 

 beds south of Barnstaple, so that the organisms of its different groups, though not so 

 perfect as those of the south of the county, yet when identified, will be of greater com- 

 parative value in settling the position of their parent beds than those of the more disturbed 

 relative beds from Torquay to Plymouth. Nearly all the species found in this group 

 have also been found at West Hagginton and Pillsbro. There are several localities 

 which can be studied with advantage ; such as TIelesborough, which, with its prominent 

 reefs, forms the eastern boundary of the harbour of Ilfracombe, and at low water in the 

 spring-tide can be safely examined. Its sea-face consists of a variety of beds, limestones, 

 sandstone, shales, and slates. The limestone rocks are full of remains of Corals, 

 Encrinites, Brachiopoda, Gasteropoda, and Cephalopoda, the same may be said of the 

 shales, and occasionally of the sandstones .... Hagginton Hill and beach, where nearly 

 every form of the district may be found. I had the good fortune to come to Ilfracombe 

 just when a large quarry was open on the top of the hill ; it was worked for lime, and the 

 waste or ' deads/ as they are here called, were in great heaps by the side, these ' deads' con- 

 sisting of impure limestone ; quartzose sandstones, with much mundic, umber, and ochre, I 

 found to be full of organisms, chiefly Brachiopoda, and I was able to extricate many 



specimens perfect enough for identification ; among these Fenestella everywhere 



On the top of the down is a large limestone quarry now in work, abounding in Corals, 

 Crinoids, &c, Favosites po/ymorp/ia being predominant. On the weathered joints, where 

 apparently water has for ages percolated, are numerous though imperfect remains of 

 Brachiopoda ; it is in the same line with the beds in which I found S. Burtini, and some 

 of the weathered shells may be of that species ; here, too, is Sp. Verneuilii vel disjuncta, 

 a Rhi/nchonella and Cyrtina heteroclita Hagginton beach is remarkable from its 



