Conglomerates, and Marls of Devonshire. 
31 
It is no doubt true that the materials are in no way sorted — coarse 
and fine, heavy and light being mingled together, — yet they were 
certainly arranged by the action of water, since they are most dis- 
tinctly stratified, and the pebbles lie with their longest axes parallel 
to the planes of bedding. The aggregation, however, does not appear 
to be such as would have resulted from the action of a stream or 
current, it rather indicates the agency of waves on an open beach. 
The blocks or boulders, moreover, large as they certainly are, are 
probably not beyond the transporting power of water, especially when 
it is remembered that the specific gravity of rock in general is to that 
of water about as 5 to 2 ; so that stony materials retain in water no 
more than three-fifths of their weight in air. 
The power of waves to remove huge blocks was strikingly displayed 
in Torbay during the too fatal gale of October 26th, 1859, — some- 
times termed " The Royal Charter Storm." Amongst other damage, 
it almost completely destroyed the turnpike road between Torquay 
and the railway station ; this road was protected hy a sea-wall having 
a parapet the base of which was about six feet above the level of 
stUl-weather spring-tide high-water. In one place a portion of this 
parapet, nine feet long by three in breadth and depth, and therefore 
measuring 81 cubic feet, was removed en masse 25 feet horizontally, 
landward, across the road ; where it was found, inverted, after the 
storm. By careful experiments I found that a portion of this mass 
weighing 99^ ounces av. displaced 71 cubic inches of water, con- 
sequently the entire block thus transported must have weighed about 
five and a half tons. 
The carbonaceous rocks which furnished the travelled though an- 
gular fragments have a strong tendency to divide into rhombohedral 
masses in consequence of joints, which are sometimes imperceptible; 
and this tendency is retained by the carbonaceous materials of the 
conglomerate. I have in several instances extracted stones of this 
kind which, on being accidentally dropped, have resolved themselves 
into angular pieces ; hence it appears not improbable that considera- 
ble blocks might have been successively divided, during the journey, 
into smaller and smaller fragments, each division restoring the 
angularity which is usually characteristic of untravelled stones. 
The phenomenon known to geologists as False or Diagonal Strat- 
ification is very common, and sometimes, though rarely, occurs in 
the finer Conglomerates. A good example of the latter formerly 
existed at Livermead and extended along a considerable line of cliff. 
The rapid encroachments of the sea there has rendered a sea-wall 
necessary, so that it is no longer visible. As may be expected, 
however, the most striking instances occur in the Sandstones. 
Amongst other note-worthy cases I may mention those in the outlier 
at Slapton, (see Fig. 2), in the north cliff at Goodrington Sands, 
(Fig 1), in a road-cutting between Exeter and Woodbury, and at 
E 
