BEDS OF THE ESTUAKr OF THE EX. 351 



rock in the quarry belonging to the Earl of Devon at Low Thornton 

 is fissured by open lines of parting ranging nearly north and south. 



The third zone may be regarded as commencing on the hill on the 

 Sidmouth road at Bishops Clyst (fig. 1), where a cutting is carried 

 through soft red sandstone, in which a little Murchisonite in detached 

 crystals is seen, resembling the deposit at Mowlish and Cofton ; the 

 dip is E.N.E. at a very small angle. This bed will overlie the soft 

 conglomerate with Murchisonite seen about four miles and a half 

 from Exeter in a roadside cutting near Saint George's Clyst, and a 

 similar conglomerate between the George-and-Dragon Gate and 

 Topsham Bridge over the Clyst. A fault runs along the Clyst river, 

 as on the west bank below Topsham Bridge ; and again in a sand- 

 quarry on the road from that bridge to the town the soft red sand- 

 rock with false-bedding reappears and overlies a conglomerate, of the 

 same nature as that described at Lympstone, containing Murchisonite, 

 which appears in a low cliff by the river Ex, dipping 8° N.E., and 

 higher up on the same river at Countess Wear and High Wear. A 

 hard fine conglomerate with Murchisonite and granitoid fragments, 

 which is worked at Exminster quarry (dipping about 5° JN".E.), near 

 the South-Devon Railway, on the west of the Ex, is apparently a 

 lower bed of the rock seen at Topsham and Countess Wear. A con- 

 siderable downthrow to the west exists between this quarry and 

 Exminster village, the overlying red sandy beds being in contact 

 with the basset edges of this rock. This soft sandstone is seen in a 

 cutting by the side of the turnpike road to the north of Exminster, 

 with bands of small fragments of rocks and Murchisonite dipping 

 about 4° N.E. Opposite to the gate of the Asylum it is of a brown 

 colour, and is worked as a sand-pit, and it can be traced on the 

 strike in a southerly direction as far as Lower Marsh Row. There is 

 much false-bedding ; and the wells are sunk through it to the fine 

 hard conglomerate beds with Murchisonite ; iron bands occur in this 

 sand-rock. The hard fine conglomerate beds with Murchisonite can 

 be traced near their outcrop along the strike from a quarry at Red 

 Hill in the south, by Exminster Asylum (where a well and boring 

 were sunk through it to the depth of 222 feet) to roadside-cuttings 

 to the south of Alphington. From this line the beds extend on the 

 rise about two miles in a south-westerly direction ; they are worked 

 in a quarry at the Asylum (dip about 8° N.E.), and other neigh- 

 bouring quarries, at Kennbury and the quarry near Kennford 

 (where the dip is about 8° N.E.) ; and thence they continue by 

 Shillingford, where the stone is quarried, to near Little Bowhays. 

 A line from near that place by Spratford Farm to the Exeter-and- 

 Newton road, about four miles and a half from Exeter, may pro- 

 bably be taken as the approximate boundary of the Murchisonite 

 beds ; thence to the Greensand and igneous beds on Great Hal- 

 don the strata consist for the most part of soft rock, with small 

 fragments of the same description as those iu the strata just men- 

 tioned, save that I have not been able to detect a fragment of 

 Murchisonite in detached crystals. Occasionally the beds are lami- 

 nated, as in some peculiar beds near Bond, dipping about 10° N.E. 



Q. J. G. S. No. 123. 2 b 



