Vol. 67.] THE CULM OF SOUTH DEVON I EXETER DISTRICT. 393 



14. Notes on the Culm of South Devon : Part I — Exeter District. 

 By Frederick George Collins, F.G.S. With a Report on 

 the Plant-Remains, by "E. A. Newell Arber, M.A., F.L.S., 

 F.G.S. ; and Notes on Carboniferous Cephalopoda from the 

 Neighbourhood of Exeter, by George C. Crick, Assoc.R.S.H., 

 F.G.S. (Read June 14th, 1911.) 



[Plate XXXII— Map.] 



Contents. 



Page 

 I . Introduction 393 



II. Literature 394 



III. Previous Kecords of Fossils 394 



IV. List of Fossils and Localities 396 



V. Report on the Plant-Eemains 398 



TI. Notes on Carboniferous Cephalopoda from the Neighbour- 

 hood of Exeter 399 



I. Introduction. 



Some ten years ago, my friend alt. C. Davies Sherborn pressed 

 upon me the desirability of making a thorough examination of the 

 Culm Measures of South Devon, and promised every assistance 

 in his power if I would undertake the task. He pointed out that 

 a great part of the area was practically unexplored, and, if syste- 

 matically worked, might yield results that would fix exactly the 

 position of the beds in the Carboniferous System. 



The sequel has shown the soundness of his judgment. But, 

 living on the spot, I knew well the reputation of the beds. To 

 quote some recent writers, Mr. E. A. Newell Arber says : — 



' From a palseobotanical standpoint the Culm Measures offer a most un- 

 promising field ; it is nowadays a matter of the greatest difficulty to obtain 



specimens sufficiently wel. preserved to admit of satisfactory determination.' L 



Principal A. W. Clay den writes : — 



' They [the Exeter type of Culm Measures] are singularly devoid of recognizable 

 fossils.' - 



Occasional essays of my own at collecting had but confirmed me in 

 a similar opinion. However, I at length undertook a more syste- 

 matic search for fossils than appears to have hitherto been made. 

 Since then my schoolboy son Oliver and I have spent much of our 

 leisure in patiently searching the Culm rocks of the neighbourhood, 

 and the examination of a definite line of country having now been 

 completed, the time has arrived to publish the results thus far 

 obtained. 



1 Phil. Trans. Boy. Soc. ser. B, vol. cxcvii (1905) p. 294. 



2 ' The History of Devonshire Scenery' 1906, p. 53. 



Q. J. G. S. No. 267. 2 e 



