72 
NEW ,ERA. 
to pursue some other direction after passing the 
angles they so abundantly form,—a circumstance 
quite irreconcileable with the notions of an original 
general level, the laminae and fibres of the slate 
having had an uniformly disposed course, and the 
unlimited capacity of the deluge to excavate vallies 
from the hardest as well as from the more readily 
disintegrated rocks. 
These roundings, contortions, and sudden pro¬ 
jections of our slate hills may be the sufficient 
reason why the dip of this stratum varies somewhat 
as before mentioned. They are also the selfevident 
causes of the many horse-shoe vallies or “ combes” 
with which Devonshire abounds. Hills of slate 
are usually formed by an uniformly directed series 
of laminae, or at least by laminae varying but little 
in their dip ; some few hills however are formed by 
laminae dipping in opposite directions and gradually 
getting vertical towards the centre. In such cases, 
one of the halves will dip as do the slate hills of 
the South Hams generally. 
Having admitted the succession of certain geo¬ 
logical epochs, after that wherein the lowest tribes 
of beings found imbedded in the fossiliferous portions 
of our strata existed, we once more find our district 
contributing animal remains to attest the visit of 
some great revolution and catastrophe to this 
immediate spot. Looking to the subjects of this 
demonstrative deposit we are instantly informed 
through inductive argument, that the aera in which 
these creatures lived must have presented compli¬ 
cations of economy, or in other words, series of 
plants and animals the former subservient to the 
latter, and more than this, we gather also that the 
agents in this economy must have been resident in 
the very district where their exuviae are now found. 
