164 DEPTH AND SUCCESSION OF THE BOVEY DEPOSITS. [May 1909, 



of the basin ; for one had to go but a short distance to the eastern 

 side of the basin, to find quite different conditions. The eastern 

 outcrop of the good clays ran for some distance almost due north 

 and south, with a strong westerly dip ; but, towards the northern 

 end, the outcrops became less regular, and began to curve slightly 

 westwards south of Knighton. The order of the beds on the 

 eastern outcrop was, from east to west : (1) white pipe-clays ; 

 (2) a more sandy and variable set of beds, the so-called ' Betwixt 

 & between Clays ' ; and (3) best dark clays, followed by more lignitic 

 beds — that was to say, an entirely different sequence from that 

 shown in the section. 



The Author regarded the Bovey Basin as a tectonic one, and the 

 speaker was not in a position to disprove this view ; nevertheless, 

 there did not seem to be sufficient evidence for it in the paper. 

 If the Eocene gravels on the Haldon Hills, the supposititious 

 gravels beneath the clays, and those flanking the marginal hills 

 were really of the same age, it involved a displacement in the 

 middle of the basin of some 1300 to 1400 feet, or a fall of at least 

 260 feet per mile. The portion of the basin south of JNewton 

 Abbot was not shown in the map upon the screen ; but this portion 

 was of great importance : for, if the theory were correct, it would 

 mean a displacement involving a fall of at least 540 feet per mile 

 in the neighbourhood of Aller Vale and Milber Down. Here and 

 at Wolborough, etc. the marginal gravels — which, it would be 

 remembered, were formerly classed as Grreensand — clearly followed 

 the existing contours of the hills in a way that was difficult to 

 reconcile with a simple tectonic basin of the kind indicated by the 

 Author ; for these rocks could hardly have been folded down in 

 the manner described, without showing some corresponding effects 

 in the underlying Permian or Devonian. 



The speaker referred to the very similar though smaller basin 

 in North Devon, between Marland and Petrockstow, south of Tor- 

 rington : it lay in the bend formed by the upper and lower courses 

 of the Torridge. Here the nature of the materials and their 

 mode of deposition were remarkably like the Bovey Beds: the 

 coarse sands lay on the western side, and the finer white clays and 

 sands cropped out on the eastern side ; while the more lignitic beds 

 lay at the northern end. 



The President (Prof. Sollas) felt sure that the Society joined 

 with him in regretting the enforced absence of the Author. The 

 paper afforded a new and welcome light on an obscure subject. 

 In requesting Mr. Whitaker to reply on behalf of the Author, he 

 would ask him to explain further the evidence on which this 

 illustrative section was based. 



Mr. Whitakek, in answer to Mr. Martin, said that the Author 

 did not propose any new classification of the Bovey Beds. 



In answer to Mr. Howe, he said that, while there might be some 

 dearth of evidence, the Author had to make the best of what evidence 

 there was, aud this, he thought, had been done. Purther evidence 

 would be furnished by additional deep borings ; but it seemed un- 

 likely that such would be made. As regarded the section across 



