384 W. A. E. TTSSHER ON THE TRIASSIC 



and for 1| mile along the beach, but long enough to expose all the 

 homogeneous portion of the deposit in the coast section. South of 

 Westdown Farm some grey sandy beds begin to emerge on the 

 beach; but a fault throws them against coarse red and greyish 

 sandstones, of which, with a capping of marl, Straight Point consists. 

 Beds of clay occur in these sandstones, which may either be the 

 beds under the grey bed on the beach before alluded to, faulted up 

 (in which case they would probably be beds of sandstone in the marl), 

 or lower sandstones. The Lower Marls contain many beds of sand- 

 stone frequently impersistent in their lower portion. These are only 

 mappable as far as Woodbury, owing to a thick loamy clay soil which 

 effectually conceals the marly structure as well as any changes the 

 deposit may undergo. From Straight Point to Exmouth numerous 

 faults obscure the relations of the beds affected by them* ; I have 

 noticed nine of these. The relations of" the marls are still further 

 obscured by the last fault at Exmouth, which brings up the lower 

 divisions and not even the upper beds of that. 



Between Straight Point and Exmouth the principal difficulty con- 

 sists in the position to which we assign the faulted sandstones. 

 Some of them are undoubtedly beds in the marls, and as such 

 indicate a passage into the lower series ; but the sandstones of 

 Straight Point, near Littleham, Withecombe, and Lympstone might 

 well be taken as belonging to the lower division of sandstones, 

 underlying the Lower Marls, and overlying the breccias of Heavitree, 

 east of Exeter, and the breccia at Dawlish. 



The Lower Marls occupy a considerable area, with an average 

 breadth of 2 miles between Exmouth and Burlescombe. They lie 

 on the slopes and low ground below the pebble-bed feature ; but, 

 owing to the thick loamy clay soil concealing them, it is difficult 

 either to obtain dips or to trace faults, except by inference, in them. 

 This loamy soil may be in a measure due to washes of sand from 

 the feature above, whilst the superficial portions of the marl were 

 redeposited by the former streams that assisted in the excavation of 

 the valley of the Culm. 



Where the valleys are broad, as in the Yale of Taunton, and 

 between Topsham and Exmouth, I have not found much difficulty in 

 observing the structure of the Upper or Lower Marls. Between 

 Burlescombe and Castle Hill, near Wiveliscombe, the Lower Marls are 

 much cut up by faults throwing them against conglomerate and 

 Lower Sandstone, and near Westford, west of Wellington against 

 Upper Sandstones. Northey Farm, near Fitzhead, north of Welling- 

 ton, is the only instance in which they are altogether absent between 

 Stogumber and Exmouth. This had been mapped by my colleague 

 Mr. H. B. Woodward before we recognized this division at all ; and 

 the faults drawn by him in that instance, and in a few square miles 

 he had mapped in the vicinity, amply account for the absence of the 

 marls at Northey Farm, and are not susceptible of correction. 

 Between this farm and Bicknoller (near Williton) the Lower Marls 



* Marls with beds of sandstone, and pandstones with beds of marl. 



