64> The Rev. D. Williams on the Geology of Devon 8f Cornwall. 



emergence. A thousand embarrassing facts on the west of 

 Dartmoor, and elsewhere, at once were reconciled, and the 

 rocks appeared before me, like a cloud of witnesses, to testify 

 that the floriferous series was overlaid by the Cornish 

 killas, and requiring me, as it were, to restore each to his 

 rightful throne. 



My long section exhibited at the Geological Society did 

 not perhaps show the south anticlinal axis sufficiently pro- 

 minent or distinct, for I see by my maps that the Coddon 

 Hill grit, commonly dipping souths occupies nearly two miles 

 of country from north to south ; and that at and about Dod- 

 discomb Leigh, it is in the same parallel with the great line 

 of fracture on the W. of Dartmoor which ranges by Laun- 

 ceston to Bos- Castle ; and that this line continued through 

 Dartmoor will intersect it at Amicomb Hill, between Fur- 

 Tor and Yes- Tor, which Mr. MacLauchlan has determined 

 to be the highest points of elevation in the West of England. 

 Any omission in my section, however, I request may be im- 

 puted to my deficiency in tact in getting up a section, and 

 not to any imperfection in the evidences afforded by the coun- 

 try ; but in reply to the objection urged by Mr. Murchison, 

 I may state, that the Posidonia limestones being only insulated 

 patches in the Coddon Hill grit, and therefore part and parcel 

 of the mineralogical axis, are quite as likely, in the southern 

 fall, to dip away from the trough, as to dip into it; my sec- 

 tion, however, gives the florifei'ous rocks as the most promi- 

 nent of the anticlinal, which I still think is very near the 

 truth, and may be explained by supposing them to arch over 

 the subordinate Coddon Hill grits ; or still better by the fact, 

 that in the N. of Devon the Coddon grits are divided into an 

 upper and lower, by great wedge-shaped masses of the flori- 

 ferous rising into prominent hills, viz. south of Barnstaple, 

 and north of Bampton, so that the lower range of these grits 

 may not be exposed here at all. 



All I have to say further is, that since the day I picked up 

 the master-key at Chudleigh and Doddiscomb Leigh, I have 

 not met with the least difficulty or embarrassment; nor do I 

 anticipate anything hereafter but additional confirmation, from 

 the conviction that nature will not be, as she has not been, 

 permitted to deny herself; and I again earnestly invite Prof. 

 Sedgwick and Mr. Murchison, or Mr. Weaver, to review the 

 county ; for after all, there are no gentlemen to whom I would 

 sooner refer this question than to themselves. 



I have the honour to remain, Gentlemen, &c. 

 Bleadon, near CrosSj Dec. 16th, 1839. D. WiLLlAMS. 



