64 PEOF. E. HFLL ON THE EED K0CK3 OF SOUTH DEVON 



red sandstone of considerable thickness, which at the angle of the 

 bay is traversed by a fault with a downthrow to the east of 25-30 

 feet, noted by Mr. Ussher. Red marls of considerable thickness 

 again succeed this sandstone, and are ultimate^ surmounted by the 

 well-known Budleigh Salterton Conglomerate. Between this Con- 

 glomerate and the Permian breccia we thus have an intermediate 

 group of soft bright-red sandstones and red marls several hundred 

 feet in thickness, and the question arises, to what formation are 

 they to be referred ? Dr. Irving regards this group as an upper 

 division of the Permian formation — possibly a representative of the 

 Zechstein in its marly condition (as it occurs in Lancashire). 

 But no bands of limestone, no traces of fossils occur in it. On the 

 other hand, the sandstones bear a strong resemblance to the ' Lower 

 Red and Mottled Sandstone ' (or Lower Bunter) of the Geological 

 Survey, and had it not been for the presence of the thick beds of 

 marl with which these sandstones are intercalated there would have 

 been little uncertainty regarding their geological position. Por my 

 own part I am disposed, though with hesitation, to consider this 

 series as the representative of the Lower Bunter, and to regard the 

 beds of marl as of local origin, constituting a divergence from the 

 normal type of this division as it is represented in the Western 

 counties of England. The contrast in character between this group 

 of beds and the great brecciated series west of the estuary of the 

 Exe seems too great to admit of the view that it is in any way an 

 upper member of the same series ; on the other hand, the sandy 

 strata are strongly suggestive of Lower Bunter affinities. 



lY. The Budlbigh Salterton Conglomerate and Sandstone 

 {Middle Buntei'). 



Whatever difference of opinion may exist between Dr. Irving and 

 the writer regarding the Exmouth beds above described, we are 

 quite of one mind as to the geological position and relations of the 

 remarkable conglomerate and overlying beds of pebbly sandstone of 

 Budleigh Salterton. Any one familiar with the Middle Bunter 

 Conglomerate of Staffordshire, Leicestershire, and Worcestershire, 

 and other parts of the Midlands, can scarcely fail to recognize its 

 representative in " the Budleigh conglomerate ; the resemblance in 

 fact amounts to identity in character, and, as it seems to me, in 

 stratigraphical position with respect to the overlying series of red 

 beds presently to be described. As regards characters, here we 

 have the conglomerate made up mainly of those peculiar red, purple, 

 and liver-coloured quartzites which are so characteristic of the 

 Bunter conglomerate of the Midland counties ; and this resemblance 

 has been strengthened by the occurrence in the pebbles themselves 

 of fossils of Silurian and Devonian tj^pes in both districts, described 

 by Salter ^ and Davidson^ from the collection in the cabinet of the 



1 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xx. (1864) p. 286. 



2 Ibid. vol. xxvi. (1870) p. 70 ; see also paper on the same subject by A. Wyatt 

 Edgell, ibid. vol. xxx. (1874) p. 45. 



