GEOLOGY 



anticline, in which districts the Dartmouth slates are not represented. 

 Spirifer primavus and Homalonotus rcemeri (?) were found near Hope's 

 Nose. Leptana looensis was doubtfully recognized at Hope farm, 

 Orthis bipparionyx in the New Cut and the New Drive, with spined 

 ' Homalonoti. Rbynchonella pengellyana was doubtfully recognized with 

 Lepteena looensis by Davidson in the Saltern Cove railway cutting. 

 Spirifer primeevus was found in the Ringmore beds. Amongst the Cob- 

 lenzian fossils Strophomena latecosta (= Tropidoleptus rhenanus), Ghonetes 

 sordida, C. plebeja are common, Renssellaria strigiceps occurs in Plymouth 

 and Torquay districts. Spirifer macropterus is said to occur at Meadfoot 

 beach. Bellerophon trilobatus, with spined Homalonoti, has been found near 

 Halwell (south -south-east of Stanborough House), also at Torquay. T'enta- 

 culites occur in the higher beds near Plymouth, also on Warberry Hill, 

 Torquay, where Beyrichia wilckensiana was found. Spirifer hystericus was 

 obtained near Cockington, but the identification of Spirifer cultrijugatus 

 near Kilmorey is very doubtful. Zaphrentid corals and crinoids are the 

 most persistent forms throughout the extension of the Meadfoot beds, 

 but are very seldom found in the Staddon grits. Pleurodictyum is not 

 confined to any particular horizon above the Dartmouth slates, and ranges 

 into the overlying Middle Devonian (Eifelian slates). Through decal- 

 cification and crushing the fossils of the Lower Devonian rocks between 

 the Brixham and Plymouth coasts are seldom specifically determinable. 



In their main outcrop the Staddon grits are so unfossiliferous that 

 it is by no means certain whether the fossiliferous red beds of Lincombe 

 Hill should be classed with them or regarded as red stained Meadfoot 

 beds. The Meadfoot beds contain irregular, knubbly, partly calcareous 

 slates which resemble those of the Lynton beds of north Devon, and the 

 Staddon grits present many lithological similarities to grits in the Hang- 

 man group. 



Middle Devonian. — The lower (or Eifelian) Middle Devonian slates 

 present two types, of which the irregular slates of Berry Park (north of 

 Totnes) and the more even slates of Mudstone Bay are examples. In 

 the slate areas between Plymouth and Totnes limestone bands are locally 

 encountered, as at Ugborough, at the base of the volcanic rocks. In the 

 limestone areas thin-bedded and slaty, or shaly, limestones pass down into 

 the slates by intercalation, as at Daddyhole and Hope's Nose. Some- 

 times these limestones are separated from the limestone above by slates 

 and volcanic rocks, as at Batten Bay, Plymouth. 



The characteristic fossil of these beds is Caleola sandalina. It is very 

 scarce, having been found at Daddyhole, and at Paytoe, or Peloe (east of 

 South Brent), where dark limestones have been locally developed in the 

 slates — and it has been said to occur at Chircombe Bridge. On the 

 borders of the great volcanic development (the Ashprington series of 

 Champernowne) south of Totnes, limestones of this series, often crowded 

 with rugose corals such as Cyathophyllum damnoniense, C. helianthoides, and 

 Cystiphyllum vesiculosum, locally intervene between the volcanic rocks and 

 the slates below. 

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