0¥ THE DEVON COAST- SECTIOlSr. 71 



has given in his valuable paper in this Journal/ as they are 

 developed across the country between Watchet and the south 

 coast, and his further description of them ^ with their varie- 

 gated colouring, their " pockets of red clay," their lenticular bands 

 of marl, their occasional assumption of a strongly calcareous 

 character, their frequent current-bedding, and the occurrence of a 

 conglomerate in the sandstone at Minehead, point in the aggregate 

 to strong affinities with the Upper Bunter of Germany, with its 

 shales, clays, and marls, its occasional conglomeratic beds, its changes 

 of colour following the stratification, its interstratified calcareous, 

 dolomitic, and marly strata (occasionally fossiliferous).^ The 

 frequently micaceous character of these coarse sandstones (which 

 I have recently observed) is another important point of agreement 

 between these beds and the Upper Bunter of Germany, which 

 Dr. Credner describes as rich in mica (glimmer reich) wherever the 

 sandstone fades is well developed.* 



Lastly, Mr. Yicary, of Exeter, has recently drawn the attention of 

 Prof. Hull and myself to the fact that the grains of the sands above 

 the great Pebble-bed are generally very angular, and in a note to me 

 he mentions the mouth of the Otter, Ottery, and Kentisbear, as loca- 

 lities where this is observed. Under the microscope this angularity 

 seems to be largely due to a deposit of secondary quartz, partly 

 as siliceous cement of ihe grains, sometimes as exceedingly well- 

 defined pyramidal crystals upon them. This is a striking point of 

 similarity between these beds and the German Buntsandstein, of 

 which Dr. Credner notes that " the siliceous cement forms at times 

 minute clear quartz-crystals upon the surfaces of the roundish 

 grains of quartz " ;^ and again, '• infiltrated silica is often deposited 

 upon the quartz-grains, and quartz-crystals have formed around 

 them. Such crystalline-quartz sandstones are distributed in Thu- 

 ringia, in the Black Porest, and in the Yosges." ^ 



For comparison I have examined samples of the Bunter sand 

 from Nottingham Porest and from Bramcote, I^otts. The litho- 

 logical resemblance of these in the presence of mica and of secondary 

 quartz, and in other respects, with the beds which I have ventured 

 to assign to the Upper Bunter in Devon is remarkable. 



Por the reasons here given, I adhere, then, to my previous reading 

 of the sandstone series (the 'Upper Sandstones' in part of Mr. Ussher) 

 which crop out at the foot of High Peake, and are continued to the 

 mouth of the Otter ; and I do this with the more confidence, from 

 the advantage I have had, during the past summer, of inspecting 

 many sections of them inland in company with Prof. Hull. 



1 Vol. xxxii. (1876) p. 378. 



2 Ibid. p. 380. 



3 See Credner, ' Elemente der Geologie,' 6th ed. (1887) pp. 545, 546. 



* Ibid. p. 545 ; see also p. 546 for localities where this micaceous character 

 is very marked. 



' Ibid. p. 541 : ' Das kieselige Zement bildet zuweilen winzige wasserhelle 

 Quarzkrystallchen auf der Oberflache der rundlichen Quarzkornchen.' 



6 Ibid. p. 542. 



