ALTERATIONS IN OTHER SPOTS. 127 
“ been a very notable haven at Seton, but now ther 
“ lyith between the two pointes of the whole haven, 
“ a mighty rigge and barre of pible stones in the 
“ mouth of it, and the river of Ax is driven to the 
“ very est point of the haven caullid Whitcliff, and 
“ there at a very smaul gut, goith into the sea. The 
“ town of Seton is now but a meane thing inhabited 
“ by fisharmen. It hath been far larger when the 
iC haven was good.”* “ Less than an hundred” 
(now nearly Jive hundred) “ yeres since, shippes 
“ usid the haven of Budleigh or Ottermoutli, but 
u it is now clene barrid”f De Luc affirms that the 
valley of the Otter has every appearance of having 
ori ginally been a gulph. There are strong suspicions, 
that Bovey Heath field has within comparatively 
recent times, been accessible to the sea,—the min¬ 
eralized vegetation and clay formations constituting 
the bed of the estuary. Recent trees &c. have been 
exposed to view in the bogs, conveyed as it is sup¬ 
posed during storms and heavy rains. I have 
further been informed, that in late years, anchors 
have been taken up, a circumstance, which if true 
would at once put the question at rest. It is 
generally believed, that the Dart in former years 
was of considerably greater bulk beyond Totnes 
Bridge,—the tide reaching far up the valley, and 
constituting according to tradition, a large expanse 
of water immediately under Berry Castle. The 
meadows are now traversed by only a small stream 
in the spot so supposed to have been overflowed. 
It would be natural to ask, whether similar re¬ 
markable changes are not evident in the other rivers 
of the neighbourhood. I am not aware of any 
other cases w r hich so strongly evidence the change 
I have been endeavouring to depict, but the natural 
* Lelandltin. vol. iii.p. 38—47, quoted in Moore’s “ Devon” p. 36. 
f Ibid. vol. iii. p. 46. 
