AND THE MIDLAND AXD WESTERNS' COUI^IIES. 65 



Eev. W. Yicary of Exeter, and in those of the E,ev. P. B. Brodie 

 from the neighbourhood of Birmingham/ While I do not assert 

 that the occurrence of these forms in the derivative pebbles is, in 

 identification of geological position, of equivalent value to their 

 occurrence in the rocks themselves, it does seem to me that the 

 coincidence is suggestive of the pebbles being torn from the same 

 unsubmerged lands at the same period, rolled about, and finally laid 

 to rest contemporaneously, though possibly in disconnected inland 

 lakes or seas. Their presence north and south of the old ridge of 

 Palaeozoic rocks, which was not finally submerged till the close of 

 the Triassic period, confirms the view I have long held, that this 

 ridge itself was the source from which they were mainly derived ; 

 and thus it would seem that a fringe of rolled shingle stretched away 

 both north and south over the floor of the submerged land of the 

 Midland counties and of Devon and Dorset at some special stage 

 of the period of gradual subsidence corresponding in time to that of 

 the Middle Bunter, There can be no doubt, however, that some of 

 the fossils of the Budleigh Salterton Conglomerate had their source 

 in Normandy and Britanny. 



The conglomerate extends northwards into the country along a 

 ridge of high ground by Yattington, Woodbury Common, and 

 Ten Ottery Hill, by the great British Camp (Alauna Si/lva) and 

 Aylesbeare Hill, dipping gently eastwards, and giving origin to 

 landscape-features constantly reminding us of those formed in the 

 Midland counties by the Bunter conglomerate. 



The Budleigh Salterton Conglomerate, which may reach 100-150 

 feet in thickness, passes below soft red sandstone with honeycomb 

 weathering, well displayed in the magnificent coast-section, and 

 these beds again are overlain by red pebbly sandstone as far as the 

 mouth of the river Otter. The whole belongs to one group, repre- 

 sentative of the ' Pebble-beds ' (Middle Bunter) of the Geological 

 Survey. 



Y. The Up pee Red and Mottled Sandstone 

 {Upper Bunter). 



The Upper division of the Bunter is very clearly seen at Sidmouth 

 in numerous sections in roadsides and pits. As Dr. Irving has 

 shown, it is brought up by a fault visible in the cliff at Chit Eock, 

 west of the village, where the Keuper marls are thrown down against 

 it on the west. This member of the Bunter Series is very similar to 

 its presumed representative in the Midland and Western counties, 

 consisting of soft laminated red, yellow, and variegated sandstone. 

 Its position, between the Keuper beds on the one hand and the 

 Pebble-beds on the other, serves to identify the division with that 

 of the Midland counties, both as regards petrographical characters 

 and order of succession. Along the eastern bank of the Sid, where 

 it opens out on the beach, the Upper Mottled Sandstone is seen 

 underlying the pebbly basement-bed of the Lower Keuper Sandstone. 



1 Op. cit. vol. xxxvii. (1881) p. 430. 

 Q.J.G.S. No. 189. p 



