THE EXTINCT LAKE OP BOVEY TRACEY. 
193 
tions of beds of Clay containing but few traces of Lignite, and 
beds of Lignite with but a slight admixture of Clay. The investi- 
gations of 1860-1, taken with the borings and observations 
previously made by Mr. John Divett, proprietor of the Coal Pit, 
showed that the Lake could not have been less than 50 fathoms 
deep. 
It is not a little remarkable that neither fresh water Shells nor 
Bones of aquatic Vertebrata were met with during the search. 
Possibly such relics would be found, if at all, near the margins of 
the Lake, from which the Coal Pit was at a considerable distance. 
There has, from time to time, been a considerable amount of 
speculation respecting the outlet of the Lake. It need scarcely 
be said that many Lakes have no outlet, their water being 
kept from redundancy by evaporation alone ; and it would be 
difficult to show that this was not the case in the Lake now under 
notice. But waiving this; it was contended in 1861 (See Quart. 
Journ. Geol. Soc. Lond. xviii. 9-20, 1862) that the outlet was at 
Torre- Abbey Sands — the end of the valley from Newton, by way 
of Kingskerswell, to Torbay. This idea originated, no doubt, 
in the fact that when an outlet exists it is commonly at one end 
of the longest axis of the Lake. This, however, is by no means 
universally the case ; for, to go no farther, the outlet of the Lake 
of Constance is, according to the maps, about 13 miles from the 
nearest end of its longest axis. 
Further, in the valley now under notice the water-shed dividing 
the drainage into Torbay from that into the Bovey Basin is at 
present at a considerable height above mean sea-level. There is, 
moreover, not the slightest trace along the route suggested of such 
debris as the hypothetical stream should have left, while every one 
who will carefully study the estuary of the Teign will find abun- 
dant relics of a river course many feet above the level of the 
South Devon Railway. 
It is contended, however — and this seems to be regarded as the 
clenching piece of evidence — that there are traces of " very white 
sandy clay, resembling that of the Bovey deposit" (Ibid. p. 17), 
on the beach near Torre Abbey. There is a considerable amount 
of Clay there, no doubt ; and so there is on the tidal strand, not 
only in almost every other inlet of Torbay, but in a very great 
number of the bays and creeks on the coasts of both North and 
VOL. ix. o 
