GEOLOGY 



and veined Palaeozoic grits like those so conspicuous further east. At 

 Haldon Palaeozoic rocks are somewhat more common in larger pieces, 

 less worn, and Purbeck rocks are naturally absent ; in other respects the 

 Haldon and Dorset gravels are of identical composition and appearance, 

 containing similar seams of white clay and rough quartz sand.' 



At Upcott (or Lower Uppercott) limestone quarry, north-east of 

 Chudleigh and about 200 feet lower than the Haldon gravels and clay, 

 or loam, with flints, a mass of fine (? Selbornian) sand, subordinate to 

 coarse sand and fine gravel with some worn chalk flints, has been pre- 

 served through the dissolution of the limestone, and forms the most 

 northerly indication of the spread of the Milber Down and Kingsteign- 

 ton, etc., sands and gravels. These gravels bound the lignitiferous clays 

 and sands very irregularly. They exhibit high dips at Staple Hill, 

 Woolborough and other places towards the depression occupied by the 

 clays and sands. Near Lower Staple Hill Reid saw the gravels passing 

 under the lower beds of the pipe clay. De la Beche observes,* ' Upon 

 these [gravels] the clay and sands of the Bovey deposit may be seen 

 to rest.' He however considered that the gravels overlaid ' undisturbed 

 Greensand,' as a boring near the Bovey Heathfield Pottery * was carried 

 to a depth of ' nearly 300 feet through sands resembling those on 

 Haldon ' without reaching their base and without encountering lignite 

 beds. 



These marginal beds vary in composition. Culm fragments being 

 most frequent toward the west. A patch of worn granite sand overlain 

 by coarse gravel with granite boulders (and some white flint apparently) 

 near Lustleigh, south of Alsford farm, points to the extension of the 

 deposit in that direction. 



About two miles north of Kingsteignton Reid notes a section of 1 2 

 feet of 'coarse gravel of well rounded large chalk flints . . . ; much small 

 quartz ; Palaeozoic grits, coarse and fine ; radiolarian chert (common) 

 and red jasper (one pebble) ; greenstone and ash ; Greensand chert 

 (one large block) ' on 3 feet of buff schorlaceous sand. Towards Hac- 

 combe he noted numerous large water-worn blocks of Greensand chert 

 and large Chalk flints in the gravel. Near Staple Hill he found it 

 ' largely composed of quartz, veined grit, radiolarian chert, and igneous 

 rock ' with ' several masses of Greensand chert and two rolled Chalk 

 flints.' 



The sand and gravel has been retained in hollows and potholes on 

 the surface of the limestone north of Kingsteignton, and outliers are 

 found on the Culm and New Red rocks. On the south-east of Ug- 

 brooke Park, near Old Chard and Underhays, large reddish siliceous 

 boulders, intensely hard and in places brecciated, accompany the deposit. 

 At Hestow farm, south of Ideford, there is a mass of these boulders, 

 which seem to be grey wethers. 



Pengelly ' gave detailed sections of the lignite pits of Bovey, the 



' Re/mrt on the Geology, etc. pp. 257, 248. 

 * Pengelly and Heer, Phil. Trans. 1862, vol. clii. p. 1022, etc. 



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