CLAYS OF BOYET TEACEY, DEVONSHIEE. 
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and arrangement of the strata, contain speculations and discussions on various topics, 
especially the mineral or vegetable origin of the lignite, the mode, in which the mate- 
rials of the deposit were accumulated, and the place of the formation in the chronolo- 
gical series of the geologist. These may be said to have resulted in a settled conviction 
that the ligmte is of vegetable origin, that the clays and sands had been furnished by 
the disintegration of the Dartmoor granite, and that the whole is of supracretaceous 
age — and a general belief that the plants had not grown on, but had been transported 
to, the area they now occupy. The exact chronology of the formation was by no means 
agreed on, further than that there seemed to be a prevalent but vague opinion that, 
geologically speaking, it was very modem. The only definite expression that had been 
given on the question was the provisional one that the deposit belonged to the Post- 
pliocene epoch ; this was based on a cone said to have been found in one of the upper- 
most beds of lignite, and which was identified by Dr. Hookee as belonging to the Scotch 
fir {Finns sylvestris) *. This and some small seed-vessels, described by Dr. Hooeee under 
the name of Folliculites minutulus, were the only identifiable fossils which, prior to the 
late explorations, had been found at Bovey. Indeed, so recently as 1839, Sir H. De la 
Beche stated that, “ excepting the lignite itself, no organic remains had been found in 
the deposit ”f. Many geologists, however, were unwilling to accept this chronology as 
conclusive, nor were they without hopes that, on a careful and thorough examination 
being made, the beds might be found to contain fuller and more reliable evidence on 
the question. 
During the spring of 1860, Dr. Falconer made several visits to Bovey and various 
localities in its neighbourhood where clay-works were, or had been, carried on. The 
result was a strong impression that the deposit would be found to belong to the Miocene 
period. In one of these visits he was accompanied by the Bev. B. Everest, F.G.S., and 
in another by Sir C. Ltell, when they had an opportunity of examining the large 
collection of specimens of the lignite made by the late Dr. Crokee. Soon afterwards 
Dr. Falconer introduced the subject to Miss Burdett Coutts as one which, for the 
credit of British geology, it was eminently desirable to have very fully investigated. After 
a visit to the Bovey “ Coal-pit,” Miss Coutts, with characteristic liberality, furnished 
me with means to undertake the work. I received the most prompt and cordial co-ope- 
ration from the proprietor, John Divett, Esq., and was so fortunate as to secure the 
services of Mr. H. Keeping, the well-known fossil-collector, of the Isle of Wight. 
The lignite-beds, having suffered less from the weather than the interstratified clays 
and sand, stand out in relief, like a series of rude mouldings, on the wall of the pit, 
especially on its southern side ; so that it is not difficult to make out, in a rough way, 
the succession of the beds. Nevertheless the clay and sand have been so much washed 
over the surface of the wall that it is impossible to do more than this ; hence it was 
decided to make a fresh section — in fact, to cut a series of steps, on a large scale, by 
which to descend the face of the artificial cliff from top to bottom, and thereby accom- 
plish the double work of collecting fossils and disclosing the geology of the deposit. 
* Quart. Joum. G-eol. Soc. vol. xi. p. 566, &c. t Eeport of Cornwall, Devon, &c., p. 257. 
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