Conglomerates, and Marls of Devonshire. 
29 
vale of Sidmouth ; and this idea finds some support in the fact that 
the Trias, when next it becomes visible, on the eastern bank of tlie 
Sid, that is in the direction of the dip of the formation, consists 
of sandstone and marl, the former prevailing at the base of the 
cliff, whilst the latter has almost exclusive possession of its sum- 
mit. Further eastward, in consequence of the inclination of the 
beds, the section is almost entirely marl, in which light colours are 
somewhat rare. 
At intervals along the cliff, patches of recent gravel, at from 
two to three feet above the existing beach, are cemented together 
and to the red rock by carbonate of lime precipitated from water 
percolating the red beds. From this fact it may be inferred that 
the beach is subject to considerable changes of level, and that, at 
probably no great distance in the interior, masses of chalk, invisible 
from the beach, overlie the Trias, and furnish the cement, which 
can scarcely be derived from the red rocks, since even the marls 
contain so very little carbonate of lime as to be without any claim 
to the name which has been given them. 
In progressing towards Salcombe-Mouth something more than 
a mile from Sidmouth, light colours, greenish bands, and ovoid 
hollow geodes, all characteristics of the marl immediately west of 
Sidmouth, are at first rare but gradually become more numerous. 
Fossil ripple-marks are frequently disclosed. The nearly vertical 
cliffs are composed of strata which dip no more than about 3° 
towards E. lO'^ S., and as the trend of the coast is not quite in 
this direction, the beds are apparently horizontal. Their edges 
present an appearance, not observed west of the Sid, which did it 
occur on their surfaces would be called corrugation and ascribed to 
lateral pressure ; but, as it is impossible that it could have origi- 
nated in this way, it may be designated ''fluting.'' The alternate 
protuberant and depressed bands are each from two to three inches 
wide, several feet in length, and they run horizontally along the 
face of the cliff; hence they are parallel to the stratification. 
Since several of them sometimes occur vertically over one another 
