The Age and Origin of the Plateaus around Torquay

Abstract

Having lately paid special attention to the hills and valleys of the Torquay district, I have been struck with the fact that the hills fall into two categories: first, those which rise above the level of a certain inclined plain or plateau; secondly, those which seem to have been carved out of this plateau. In the first category are the Warberry and Lincombe Hills, and the high ground above Kilmorie which bears no special name, but may, for the sake of convenience, be called ‘Kilmorie Hill.’ In the second category are nearly all the other hills within the Torquay watersheds; few of these hills rise much above 300 feet, and many of them are flat-topped, such as Daison Hill and Lummaton Hill. Besides these flat-topped eminences, there are also definite plateaus which cannot be called ‘hills,’ but are obviously portions of one or more ancient plains. As instances of these, I need only mention the Babbacombe Downs, and the smaller tract which is known by the rustic appellation of Daddy-Hole Plain. The plateaus around Torquay, and the problems which they offer to the student of physical geography, did not escape the notice of William Pengelly, who referred to them ill 1864 as ‘terraces of denudation.’ He seems to have regarded them as submarine platforms produced by the planing action of sea-waves at a time ‘not very remote geologically—when the entire district was below the sea-level.’ In 1866 he developed the idea still further in a paper on ‘Lithodomous Perforations... in