On the Budleigh Salterton pebbles

Abstract

From the eastern end of Exeter, and looking eastward, a very picturesque ridge of hills may be seen stretching for several miles from south to north, viz., the Knowle and Blackhills, Woodbury Common, Aylesbeare and Rockbeare Hills, and Straightway Head: these may be termed the backbone of the Budleigh Salterton pebble deposit. In giving a few brief particulars respecting this deposit, it will be desirable to describe the area of country over which it is spread; then the Budleigh Salterton beach; the cliffs there; the pebbles themselves; the fossils found in them, and the source whence they were derived. The Area of Country, &c. —The pebbles are scattered more or less over a district bordered on the east by the river Otter, and on the west by the rivers Exe and Clyst, being a width of country varying from 5 to 10 miles; also extending from the coast on the south for 12 or 13 miles north, viz., from the cliffs at Budleigh Salterton to Straightway Head, where they thin out, and, it is believed, nearly terminate at Tallaton, whither they have been traced. The whole of this area is triassic, though in some geological maps patches of greensand are marked on the summit of the Woodbury Hills; this formation, however, has disappeared from that locality. The great mass of the pebbles is imbedded in the undulating range of hills already mentioned, in which many good sections are laid open, affording ample means for examination, while those found in the lower