264 DE. H. SICKS ON THE MOETE SLATES, AND [May 1 896, 



remembered that the beds are much folded, and that fossils can only 

 be found in anything like a fairly well-preserved state in the limb 

 of the fold where the cleavage-lines and bedding-planes are nearly 

 parallel. In the arch of the fold the fossils are much crumpled, and 

 where tbe cleavage crosses the beds fragments only are found, though 

 a sharp blow directed in the line of the bedding, which is usually 

 much less marked than the cleavage-line, will sometimes reveal a 

 better specimen. Eastwards from this point the Morte Slates are 

 frequently exposed in small quarries and roadside sections, but there 

 are no quarries of any importance until we reach the neighbourhood 

 of Francis and Woolscott Barton. In the Francis quarry are some 

 thick beds of a yellowish shale, unlike the usual Morte Slates, and, 

 as they have not yielded any fossil evidence other than worm-tracks 

 and doubtful encrinites, there is nothing to guide one as to their 

 proper horizon. 



V. Woolscott Baeton, Smithson, and Beeet Down. 



On Woolscott Barton Farm there are several old quarries in the 

 Morte Slates, but in none of these could I find more than traces of 

 fossils. In the slate-quarry in Smithson Wood, on the eastern side of 

 the valley which separates the Woolscott and Smithson farms, many 

 markings resembling graptolites were found on the surface of the 

 slates, also a few small Lingular, a small Orthis, and fragments of encri- 

 nites. The slates are of a dark-bluish colour and well cleaved. Similar 

 slates are found in the road-cutting leading to Smithson Farm. In 

 the valley a short distance south of the adjoining farm of Hempster 

 I noticed some light-coloured felstone-dykes cutting through the 

 slates. At Berry Down the Morte Slates rise to a height of over 

 850 feet, but there are no quarries here of any importance. On the 

 road from Berry Down to Combe Martin the line of separation 

 between the Morte Slates and the Ilfra combe Beds occurs near 

 Henstridge, and the fault runs up the valley which extends for 

 some distance in a nearly east-and-west direction. Sandstones are 

 found in the southern side of Stoneditch Hill underlying the slaty and 

 calcareous beds of the Ilfra combe Series, which are much folded 

 here, as at Ilfracombe. Evidence that the Ilfracombe Beds lie in a 

 wide trough becomes perfectly clear in tracing the sections towards 

 Combe Martin, and identifiable fossils are to be found at several 

 points. The fossils here are, on the whole, in a better state of 

 preservation than near Ilfracombe, and the facts seem to point to a 

 diminishing intensity in the folding and shearing in an eastward, 

 direction. 



VI. SlJMMAEY OF THE StEATIGEAPHICAL EVIDENCE 



in Noeth Devon. 



It may be well briefly to summarize the results given in this 

 paper, though any conclusions arrived at in regard to the general 



