BE.VCHES, ETC., OF THE SOUTH OF EXGLAXD. 283 



that Point we come to the sheltered estuary of the Taw, which is 

 nearly encircled by them. 



A little to the west of Westward Ho is a very massive Eaised 

 Beach. ^ It is 15 feet above the level of the present beach, and con- 

 sists almost entirely of pebbles, in size like large cannon-balls (many 

 of them 1| feet in longest diamefer), of a very hard, compact, 

 greenish-grey sandstone from the Carboniferous rocks a short 

 distance westward, mixed with very little sand. This Beach contains 

 no shells, and is from 5 to 10 feet thick. It is covered immediately 

 by a Head of angular slaty debris 5 to 8 feet thick. A similar 

 Beach with the same massive pebbles is again seen on the top of 

 the cliff at Cornborough Common, but it is there separated from the 

 Head of angular debris by 2 to 3 feet of sand. It thins off inland, 

 but may be traced at intervals as far as Appledore. 



At Instow, opposite Appledore, the Raised Beach with shells 

 rests on a platform of rock, a few feet above the level of the river. 

 It has no overlying Head, and has been largely worked for gravel. 



Between this place and Premington the railway passes through a 

 cutting, about 2d feet deep (PI. YII. fig. 5), of Devonian rocks, 

 flanked at one end by a small quantity of Eubble-drift and at the 

 other by a Raised Beach with a covering of Bubble-drift, of which 

 the section is as under : — 



feet 



a. Angular slaty debris embedded in a reddisb sandy clay 2 to 6 



b. Shingle of large rolJed fragments of slate (of less size than at 



Westward Ho), with some quartzite-pebbles from the New Eed. 

 Sandstone, small wliite quartz-pebbles, and a few subangular 

 chalk-flints, in a sandy matrix. There was one boulder of a 

 white, fine-grained granite, measuring '2^ X 1|^X l^ ft., but no 

 shells r 1 to 12 



The Beach abuts against a low cliff, above which the hill rises 

 slightly with a bare surface, while seaward the angular debris 

 (Head) which overlies the Beach irregularly mingles with it, and 

 the line of separation is lost. 



South of the line of railway is a thick deposit of clay, which 

 has been referred to by Mr. Maw as possibly Boulder Clay.- It 

 is underlain by a thin bed of gravel, at about the same elevation 

 as the Raised Beach in the adjoining Bay, with Avhich Mr. Maw 

 correlates it, and in which I found a few fragments of the ordinary 

 Raised Beach shells. The clay is of an uniformly fi.ne, smooth 

 texture, brown in colour, and attains on the summit of the hill a 

 thickness of 78 feet. Mr. Maw states that a large boulder of 

 ' basaltic Trap ' was found in it at a depth of 12 feet. I met with 

 a smaller, somewhat angular boulder of a light-coloured decom- 

 posing granite, and one of a light-green felspathic sandstone ; but 

 I could not say whether they belonged to the clay-bed or to the 



^ A view of the Eaised Beach is given bj^ the Author in his ' Geology' &.C., 

 vol. ii. p. 517. It is from this Beach that the Eoiilder-ridge beach of Apple- 

 dore is no doubt derived. See also Mr. Pengelly's paper in Trans. Devon Assoc, 

 for 1867, vol. ii. p. 43. 



2 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xx. (1864) p. 445. 



