On the Succession of Beds in the “New Red” on the South Coast of Devon, and on the Locality of a New Specimen of Hyperodapedon

Abstract

T he following account of the successive beds that are shown in the “New Red” cliffs of South Devon, is from notes taken during a holiday-walk along that coast last September, and it has been drawn up at the request of Prof. Huxley, in order to mark the stratigraphical place of the Hyperodapedon jaw from near Budleigh Salterton. I believe that the only paper Which treats of the order of these beds is a full report of two lectures by Mr. Pengelly, F.R.S.* To this I refer the reader for a more detailed account of the composition of the various “red rocks.” Owing to the dip, lower and lower beds rise to the surface southwestward, so that an almost continuous section is given. The occurrence of the uppermost part of the “New Red” near the eastern boundary of the county, and its passage upwards into the Lias, have been noticed by Sir H. De la Beche †, and more fully by Mr. Pengelly‡; but the cliffs here are so much hidden by fallen masses, that little is to be seen below the “White Lias” until we pass to the west of the great landslip of 1839 at Dowlands. The cliff is then clearer, and shows a set of evenly-bedded greenish clays, with black shales, stone-beds, and layers of hard marl (Rhætic Beds). Here Mr. Pengelly found the well-known bone-bed. Lower down some of the layers of clay have a reddish colour; and there is a passage downwards into “New Red” marl,