On the Geology of South Devon, with Special Reference to the Long
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442 C. LAPWORTH ON THE ROOKS OF ERIBOLL DISTRIOT. Archrean, sedimentary, or intrusive materials respectively is in all probability an insoluble question. (4) Its gneisses may be either Archrean 01' (some) possibly formed by intrusion (injection of plutonic rocks) in later ages. (5) Its schists may be composed either of crushed A,·ch<.eans, crushed intrusives, or of a mixture of these with sedimentaries. (6) Its (so-called) slates may be (according to the locality, either normal slates or) crushed rocks not yet re-crystallized (and) of either Archrean, sedimentary, intrusive, or of mixed origin. ON THE GEOLOGY OF SOUTH DEVON, WITH SPECIAL REFERENOE TO THE LONG EXOURSION. By W. A. E. USSHER, F.G.S. DEVONIAN ROOKS. PLYMOUTH TYPE. TORQUAY AND TOTNES TYPE. A. Picklecombe and Staddon Grits 7. Cockington Beds-purple and grey grits and slates. 6. Berry Park Beds-bluish and dark olive slaty shales. 5. Ramsleigh Limestone. 11. Green Slates of Rame Head .., Dartmouth Slates-greenish slates. C. Lilac and grey Slates, with calc spar and ash bands local... 4. Ashprington Series (Schalstein) dia, basic rocks, and tuffs, inter. stratified with slates. D. Calcareous Shales, Plymouth Limestone ... ... ... ... 3. Stringocephalus Limestone - The Great Devon Limestone. E. Indian red and greenish Slates 2. Lower Slates-purplish and green ish slate. F. Looe Grits and Schists ... Ic, Warberry and Lincombe Hill-red grits. 1. Meadfoot grey and brownish grits and schists, To understand the Devonian Rocks of South Devon in a general way, you have to shut your eyes, as it were, to the great complexity of their relations, to ignore the many folds and flexures into which they have been thrown, and to pass over the particular difficulties which the position of this patch of limestone or that mass of shale present, unless you are prepared by slow and laborious investigation to take each complex bit of ground and un- W. A. E. USSHER ON THE GEOLOGY OF SOUTH DEVON. 443 ravel its structure, so that after years, it may be, this piecemeal geologizing enables you with some show of probability to put the disjointed fragments together, and build up a general structure and a succession of great divisions. As we cannot do so ourselves, we must accept the general conclusion arrived at by those who have studied the details, of whom my friend Mr. Champernowne has been the most assiduous. Before stating the general sequence he gives me, I may mention that the difference between the North and South Devon Devonian areas is in some respects very great. In North Devon we have a continuous succession-the beds are folded, it is true-but the folds do not affect the connection of divisions, and except in the case of the Lower Devonian, faults do not complicate their relation; the features also are persistent, characteristic, and well marked. In North Devon, the Upper Devonian consists of slates upon grits, perhaps from 2,000 to 3,000 feet thick; the Middle Devonian, of slates very like the beds near Rame Head and Cawsand, upon slates and shales, with Limestones, upon the Hangman Grits; the series being probably much thicker than the Upper Devonian. The Lower Devonian consists of slates, schists, and even bedded grits, the equivalents of the Lynton Beds-upon the Foreland Grits. Now we have in South Devon a constant recurrence of shales, slates and limestone, putting out of sight for a time the grits of Cockington Hill, Staddon Point and Picklecombe Fort. These beds cover a very large area, and exhibit every variety of complex relationship. Diabase tuffs, interbedded with slaty shales, form an important series of beds, for which, from a village in thc region where they are developed, Mr. Ohampernowne suggests the name Ashprington series, and correlates them with the Nassau Schal stein. These beds exhibit every kind of faulted relationship to shales and slates above and below the Great Devon Limestone. The oldest Devonian rocks known in the district are the red grits and schists of Warberry and Lincombe Hills in the Torquay promontory, and the grey and brownish grits and schistose beds of Meadfoot, near Torqnay, which owe their position to faults by which they have been thrust up. They are regarded as Lower Devonian, and Mr. Champernowne also thinks that part of the slates below the great Devon Limestone may be Lower Devonian. To ascertain the relations of a group of strata it is necessary either to discover in them bands sufficiently marked and persistent 444 w, A. E. trSB HE R ON THE GEO LOGY OF BOUTH DE VON. to serve as horizons, to ascertain the features peculiar to the different lithological varieties, to follow or in some degroe ascertain th e stratigraphical relations of the constituent divisions, or to have a very intimate acquaintance with th eir fossil contents, and an extensive knowledge of th e groups which arc equivalent to th em elsewhere. All th ese methods of research have been brought to bear upon a large par t of th e Devonian area between Ashburton, Torquay, and Plymouth by my friend Mr. Champernowne, and the reservation with which he is in many cases obliged to give his opinion respecting the position of the divisions and their cor relation, after a study extending over many years, proves th e extreme diffi culty of th e task. In North Devon, as I have said, the three great divisions of the Devonian have each a slate and a grit series, and the slates of all three are different lithologically and palseontologically, whilst the grits are also distinct and distingui shable, so that if in North Devon we had a quantity of dislocations, bringing in contact tile members of divisions of very different ages, we should still be able to unrav el th e structure as though no faults existed. I n South Devon, on the contrary, the Great Devon Lim estone, which may be regarded as the most, if not the only marked horizon, is, as its fossils show, more or less of th e natu re of a coral reef, and, there fore, in all probability, not only not persistent as a whole, but locally pr esenting abrupt natural terminations which would have th e appearance of faults. We will now glance at the Plymou th Sound District, from which I hope to effect a bett e!' starting point, in a little tract with which I am personally acquainted, than if 1 plung ed at once into my friend's excellent and erudite classification. The Devonian Rocks of Plymouth. The main mass of the Plymouth Limestone terminates in th e north part of Mount Edgecumbe Park. It dips southwards under shales, partly calcareous, and associated with ash-beds. The shales near Barn Pool are intersected by dykes of igneous rock. Towards Pickleeombe Fort th e coast geology is confined to beach reefs, consisting of shales intercalated with grey grits, red grits, and slaty grits; and further on, lilac-brown grits with quartz veins. At half a mile from Kingsand the gr its are overlain by a small exposure of Triassic breccia, which dips under the Trap rock of Oaweand. W. A. E. USSHER ON THE GEOLOGY OF SOUTH DEVON. 445 The grits are probably cut off on the south by a pre-Triassic fault between Maker Barracks and Millbrook, and near Picklecombe Fort; and their dips being discordant, they are either unconform able to, or faulted against, the shales overlying the Plymouth Lime stone. These beds are evidently a continuation of the massive red grits, intersected by irregular joints, which form the cliffs above Staddon Pier, on the opposite side of the Sound. The Staddon grits seem to be faulted against the shales over lying the limestones of Mount Batten, Hooe, andOreston. South of the Cawsand Trap rock pale green quartz-veined slates are exposed on the coast forming Peulee Point. Rame Head is composed of grey slates, with beds of fine grey quartz-veined grit. Rounding Rame Head, and proceeding toward East Looe, we have a downward succession of lilac, grey, and greenish slates, with occasional gritty beds from the Rame Head, Peulee Point, and Cawsand slates, which exactly resemble those of Morthoe, viz., the upper member of the North Devon Middle Devonian. Near the Fort, south of Lower Tregantle these beds rest on about 100 feet of buff sandstones, succeeded by 300 feet of calcareous shales, with a mass of slaty limestone, upon about 200 feet of slates and sandstones. As these calcareous shales are on the strike of the Plymouth Limestones, the passage of the one into the other is a legitimate inference. Further on to Millelldreath, grey, lilac, greenish, and Indian-red slates, shales, and fine intercalated grits may be taken as the beds underlying the Plymouth Lime stone, exposed with more marked colouring in the railway cuttings between Plymouth and St. German's. Under these beds we have the greenish, reddish, and grey quartei ferous slaty and shaley beds and grits of Looe, with their ill-pre served fossils. The above observations give us the following series:- A. Picklecombe and Staddon Grits, probably unconformable to beds below. B. Green slates of Rame Head and Peulee Point, probably the upper part of the Middle Devonian. C. Lilac-greenish and grey slates, apparently associated with ash-beds and calcareous matter near Barnpool, where they overlie the Ply month Limestone, based by grits near Higher Tregantle. 446 w, A. E. USSHER ON THE GEOLOGY OF SOUTH DEVON. D. Calcareous shales on the strike of, and therefore passing into, the great South Devon Limestone. E. Indian-red and greenish slates of St.