388 W. A. E. TJSSHER ON THE TRIASSIC 



on the coast. The gravelly breccias in the vicinity of Tiverton, Col- 

 lumpton, and Cadbury, near Crediton exhibit a matrix of brown 

 earthy sand in which the fragments are often loose. 



Hard Breccias. — Between Clerk Rock, north of Teignmouth, and 

 St. Mary's chnrch the coast-section exhibits hard breccias, often very 

 thickly bedded, readily distinguishable from the Dawlish variety by 

 their presenting all the characteristics of a hard rock in which matrix 

 and contents are weathered alike, and not like the Dawlish breccias, 

 from the weathered surfaces of which the fragments stand out, being 

 much more indestructible than the matrix. The stones contained 

 in the Teignmouth breccias are of all sizes, from boulders as large as 

 a man's head to pebbles the size of a pea, and exhibit a much greater 

 variety of derivation than the rocks of Dawlish ; they also show a 

 various amount of attrition, from perfectly unworn fragments to 

 rounded boulders. The contained fragments consist of Devonian 

 grit, granite, trap, quartz, and limestone rocks, in varying propor- 

 tions, Devonian-grit stones being in considerable majority, limestone 

 fragments occurring locally. The matrix consists of hard reddish 

 sandstone, often coarse-grained. Inland the breccias of Heavitree, 

 east of Exeter, and of Sampford Peverell exhibit some resemblance 

 to those of Teignmouth : the contained fragments are angular and 

 subangular, smaller than the average of those on the coast; and 

 limestone is absent in the former. At Halberton and Sampford 

 Peverell, at the mouth of the Tiverton valley, hard-bedded breccias 

 occur, containing fragments of culm grit, limestone, and quartz ; 

 north of Sampford Peverell these beds present the appearance of a 

 conglomerate. 



At Canon Leigh, near "West Leigh, a few beds of hard breccia are 

 visible, faulted against culm limestones ; east of Bathealton, south of 

 Wiveliscombe, they dip over Lower Sandstones, and are cut out by a 

 fault bringing up Lower Marls. North and north-east of Wivelis- 

 combe breccias occupy high ground, dipping over Lower Sandstones, 

 and at Castle Hill faulted against Lower Marls ; here they contain 

 rounded fragments and are not thick-bedded. 



Between the great fault north of Fitzhead (near Wiveliscombe) and 

 Lydeard St. Lawrence the beds present more the appearance of a 

 conglomerate than a breccia, containing pebbles of grit, quartz, and 

 limestone. North of Lydeard St. Lawrence beds of breccio-conglo- 

 merate and hard breccias occur, intercalated in brecciated sands and 

 Lower Sandstones ; but the general character of the breccia in the 

 neighbourhood of Luckham*, Williton, and Stogumber is more in 

 accordance with the breccias of Dawlish (with many exceptional 

 phases, all of which have their congeners between the Watchet 

 district and the south coast of Devon) than those of Teignmouth. 



We cannot here go into all these minor modifications which the 

 breccias present. In numerous instances, on the older rocks, 

 bordering the Tiverton and Crediton valleys, and on Spray Down, 



* A band of gravelly breccio-conglornerate, first noticed and mapped by my 

 colleague Mr. J. H. Blake, occurs in the breccia near Luckham, and somewhat 

 resembles the gravelly breccia of Bradninch in character. 



