380 W. A. E. TJSSHER ON THE TKIASSIC 



lets down the Chalk and Upper Greensand, between Whitecliff and 

 Branscombe Mouth. In assigning a dip of 3°, persistent over 

 an area of 5 miles, allowing a deduction of 3 miles for the synclinal 

 at Beer, &c, we are scarcely making an underestimate. This would 

 give a thickness of about 1350 feet. I do not think they -exceed 

 1000 feet further inland. 



The lower beds, sandy marls, lead us by an easy conformable 

 passage to the consideration of the next member of the group. 



The Upper Sandstones. 



These consist of sandstones and rock-sands, red in the coast 

 section ; generally red but often yellowish, buff and grey, resembling 

 the Upper Greensand in colour in the interior ; locally mottled grey, 

 in spots and streaks as at Mnehead, near Wellington ; containing 

 pockets of red clay in parts of the coast section, and in the railway- 

 cuttings north of Sidmouth lenticular bands of marl in the top beds, 

 and near Milverton and "Wellington beds of clay in their lower 

 portions ( = waterstojs t es). 



At Otterton Point they contain two or three conglomeratic beds, 

 and a few pebbles in false-bedding lines, also observable near 

 Harpford, 5 miles north of the Point. 



Calcareous nodules, and veins and nodules of ironstone occur in 

 them on the coast, and in many localities inland. Between Crow- 

 combe-Heathficld station (south of Watchet) and Bishops Lydeard 

 these beds become exceedingly calcareous ; about the middle of 

 the division they present a nubbly appearance and bluish grey colour 

 with occasional red spots, and might locally be almost considered 

 a limestone. From a minute investigation of the Watchet district, 

 my colleague, Mr. Blake, suggested the possibility of these marlstone 

 beds representing a portion of the hitherto unfound Muschelkalk ; 

 but from an acquaintance with the whole area where the Upper 

 Sandstones are present, I can only regard the local variation the 

 beds here assume as an intensified form of the calcareous bands 

 and nodules to be met with in many places between Bishops Lydeard 

 and the south coast. 



The discovery of organic remains in the South-Devon and "West- 

 Somerset Trias seems to be confined to this division, the respective 

 finds of my friends Messrs. Lavis and Whitaker being in its upper 

 and lower beds. 



A conglomeratic bed occurs in the sandstone at Mnehead (near 

 Wellington), but apparently much higher up' than the beds of 

 Otterton Point. The Otterton beds were observed and commented 

 on by Mr. Pengelly and many other able observers long before I 

 knew of their existence, and have become of peculiar interest as the 

 site of the ffyperodapedon found by Mr. Whitaker. 



On Woodbury Common, north of Exmouth, the rock-sands very 

 much resemble Greensand in colour, and in the older Survey map 

 have been mistaken for it. 



These sandstones frequently exhibit false -beddiag. 



