62 



PEOP. E. HTJLI/ ON THE EED EOCKS OF SOTJTH DBVOIf 



lowest beds, and follow the section upwards ; and it may be stated 

 that Dr. Irving — by whom the writer was accompanied — had not 

 had a previous opportunity of examining the sections which we first 

 visited together in the neighbourhood of Torquay. 



II, LowEE Peemian Beeccia eoeming base of Seeies. 



Torquay District : Oddicombe Bay. — The clifi's which bound the 

 coast at Babbacombe and Oddicombe Bays rise to a height of about 

 300-400 feet, and display a magnificent section of red and purple 

 breccia, resting on either hand against the slopes of Devonian lime- 

 stone, which were evidently hollowed out into the form of a bay or 

 river channel, and afterwards filled in with the detritus now 



Pig. 1. — Cliff -section ahove^ Oddicombe Bay. 



B. Lower Permian. Brecciated red sandstone and unconsolidated shingle, 



resting against the face of 

 D, a Palseozoic cliff formed of highly inclined Devonian limestone. 



[The above sketch is taken from one made on the spot. The strata (B) are 

 shown in the line of strike, north and south. At right angles thereto there 

 would be no doubt a small dip.] 



forming the brecciated beds, lying at the base of the whole series 

 of red rocks.^ The pebbles of which they consist are chiefly 

 Devonian limestone, purple grits from the same formation, and 

 smaller numbers of vein quartz and decomposed slate (probably 

 Carboniferous). We also found a pebble of grey granite with black 

 mica. Some of the pebbles are several inches in diameter and 

 rounded, but the majority are subangular, and all are enclosed in an 

 incoherent red sandy material, often calcareous. 



Proceeding northwards towards Exmouth, another remarkable 

 cliff-section bounds the coast at Labrador Hotel, equally lofty, and 

 furnishing a great variety of fragmental blocks and stones, some 

 over a foot in diameter. They consist of red and purple grits in 

 varying proportions according to locality, Devonian limestone, 



^ These brecciated beds with their associated igneous rocks were described by 

 Sir H. T. De la Beche in his ' Report on the Greology of Cornwall, Devon, &c.,' 

 pp. 193 et seq., and classed under ' the E,ed Sandstone Series.' The occur- 

 rence of contemporaneous volcanic rocks is highly suggestive of their Permian 

 age. 



