244 
EXTENT OF DENUDATION IN EAST DEVON. 
section is equally applicable; e. g. to qua rries of Fox Hills on the 
south-east, ofWaycroff Qn tlie northj and G f Sisterwood, Battleford, 
Lonff Small-ridge, Green-down, and Cox-wood, on the north¬ 
west of Axminster. There can be little doubt, therefore, that tne 
component strata of all these quarries were originally connected in 
one continuous plane across the now void space which forms the 
valley of the Axe. 
The fact of excavation is evident from simple inspection of the 
manner in which the valleys intersect the coast, on the east of Sid- 
mouth and the east of Lyme, as represented in the annexed views 
(Plate XXV.); and it requires but little effort, either of the eye or 
the imagination, to restore and fill up the lost portions of the strata, 
that form the flanks of the valleys of Salcomb, Dunscomb, and Brans- 
comb, on the east of Sidmouth; or of Charmouth, Seatown, and Brid- 
port, on the east of Lyme. By prolonging the corresponding ex¬ 
tremities of the strata on the opposite flanks, we should entirely fill 
up the valleys, and only restore them to the state of continuity in 
which they were originally deposited. 
An examination of the present extent and state of the remaining 
portions of the chalk formation within the district we are considering, 
will show to what degree the diluvian waters have probably inter¬ 
rupted its original continuity. The insulated mass of chalk, which at 
Beer Head composes the entire thickness of the cliff, rises gradually 
westward with a continual diminution and removal of its upper sur¬ 
face ; till after becoming successively more and more thin on the cliffs 
of Branscomb, Littlecomb, and Dunscomb, it finds in the latter its 
present extreme western boundary: beyond this boundary, on the 
top of Salcomb Hill, and of all the highest table-lands and insulated 
