A HISTORY OF DEVONSHIRE 



These movements were post-Carboniferous, and acting from south 

 to north produced the east and west lines of folding so generally mani- 

 fested throughout the Palasozoic area ; but the obvious deflection of the 

 strikes, as they sway round the discordant mass of Dartmoor granite, 

 would certainly indicate the existence of that mass in its present site 

 while the north and south contractile movements were in operation. 



These movements had not only ceased prior to the deposition of 

 the earliest sediments in the eastern part of the county, but an interval 

 in time had elapsed of sufficient duration to permit of the denudation 

 of an enormous amount of the crumpled strata of older rocks ; so that 

 the lower beds of the newer formations are found to rest on Lower 

 Devonian rocks near Paignton and Cockington, on Middle and Upper 

 Devonian at Torquay, Newton Abbot, etc., on Lower Culm Measures 

 near Exeter and Burlescombe, and on Middle Culm Measures in the 

 Crediton, CoUumpton and Tiverton districts. 



The old term New Red Sandstone has been applied to the earliest 

 sediments of the newer rocks, because, although their lower beds have 

 with reason been correlated with part of the German Permian and 

 their uppermost subdivisions with the Trias, in lithological character 

 and conditions of deposit their several members are linked together, and 

 sharply contrasted from the much older strata beneath and the succeeding 

 rocks into which they pass above. 



Their lower beds, consisting of clays (local), conglomerates and 

 breccia and soft sandstones, fill old creeks and valleys in the Carboni- 

 ferous rocks in the Tiverton and Crediton districts, and, in the vicinity 

 of these valleys, they occur as outliers at Hatherleigh, Stoodleigh and 

 other places on higher ground. These strata dip at higher angles from 

 the margin of the older rocks than elsewhere. Igneous rocks are 

 plentiful in the breccias of the Crediton valley, of Exeter and of the 

 Teignmouth coast, and contemporaneous lavas challenge comparison with 

 the Melaphyr decken of the German Permian. These rocks are suc- 

 ceeded by Marls, which form comparatively low land rising westward 

 to the scarp of the overlying Pebble beds. This Pebble-bed feature is 

 conspicuous from West Down Hill, Budleigh Salterton, over the Common 

 lands to the northward, and shows the north and south strike and easterly 

 dip of the rocks. The Pebble beds pass under a series of Sandstones 

 with irregular calcareous concretions, and these are in their turn overlain 

 by the Keuper Marls. The succeeding Rhstic strata separating the New 

 Red Sandstone from the Lower Lias clays and limestones are inconspic- 

 uous ; both Rhffitic and Lias being confined to the eastern margin of the 

 county, where they are seldom well exposed owing to the overlap of the 

 Cretaceous rocks of the Blackdown tableland. 



The Cretaceous rocks, mainly consisting of Selbornian sands overlain 

 near the eastern boundary of the county by Chalk, cover the older 

 Secondary formations, resting in succession on Lower Lias, Rhsetic 

 beds, Keuper Marls, and the upper beds of the succeeding sandstones. 

 They have been removed by denudation from the intermediate beds 



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