THIS DEVONIAN ROCKS OF ILFRACOMBE. 103 
previously found it out from information that I had obtained for 
him. Here I found the rocks, as before, almost perpendicular, 
very much contorted, owing to lateral pressure, and in some 
instances presenting a cliert-like appearance, whilst in others they 
were ashy. Here I found some Crinoidal stems in good preserva¬ 
tion, several small Brachiopoda, a cast of a Coral, and a fragment 
of a Trilobite, probably a Phacops. 
Having seen in the Barnstaple Museum some fossils obtained 
from the rocks on the bank of the River Taw at Ashford, I set to 
work one evening to see what I could find. But first let me mention 
a curious phenomenon, similar to one which I had seen on the road¬ 
side between the Morthoe Railway Station and Woolacombe, the 
beds immediately underneath the surface being rolled or bent over, 
as shown in the drawing. (See Plate VII., Fig. 1.) Various conjectures 
have been hazarded respecting the cause of this phenomenon. Some 
geologists, and I believe Sir A. Geikie amongst them, attribute it to 
the flow of ice during the ice age, the great bed of ice forcing the 
soft beds forward, and thus rolling them over. Other geologists 
consider that this phenomenon is owing to the action of frost; 
but taking into account that this rolling of the rocks extends over a 
large area, and that evidently powerful physical causes must have 
been at work to effect it, I do not see how this last-mentioned 
theory will stand. But I believe the solution of this problem is to 
be found, as Professor Lapworth has suggested to me, in what is 
technically termed earth-creeping, i,e., in the gradual movement of 
the surface of the earth upon a slope, a phenomenon which may be 
seen upon the side of a hill. 
In these rocks the Pilton Beds are well shown, and are seen to 
consist of slate, which degenerates into shale. Here I was 
fortunate to obtain a head of a Trilobite and several other fossils, 
which are characteristic of the Pilton Beds. 
Leaving now the true Devonian Rocks, I proceed to mention 
what I saw on the other or south-western side of Barnstaple. But 
before proceeding to say anything about the rocks in that locality, 
it may, perhaps, interest some present to hear a little about the 
ancient town of Barnstaple. This town, until within 100 years 
May, 1893. 
