A book of the west. Volume 1, Devon : $b being an introduction to Devon and CornwallBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
A book of the west. Volume 1, Devon : $b being an introduction to Devon and Cornwall
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Devon (England)
The most extraordinary difference in kinds and composition exists
throughout the granitic area. Some granite is very coarse, full of
what are locally called "horse-teeth," crystals of felspar, other
is finely grained. Some is black with schorl, some, as that of Mill
Tor, white as statuary marble. Granite was not well stirred before
it was protruded to the surface. The constituents of granite are
quartz, felspar, and mica; the latter sometimes white, at others
usually black and glistering. The felspar may be recognised as being
a dead white. The black shining matter found near where are veins of
tin, is schorl.
It is the opinion of modern geologists that the granite never saw
daylight till cold and consolidated, and that granite when in fusion
and erupted to the surface resolves itself into trap. The pressure
of superincumbent beds prevented perfect fusion. In its altered
condition when perfectly fused it may be seen in Whit Tor, near Mary
Tavy.
But, it may be asked, what has become of the beds that overlay the
granite? They have been washed away. In Exmoor we do not meet with
the granite. It had heaved the slates, but not sufficiently to so
dislocate them as to enable the rains and floods to carry them away
and reveal the granite below. If Dartmoor granite could but have
retained its covering matter, the region would have been indeed
mountainous. In Shavercombe, a lateral valley of the upper Plym, may
be seen traces of the original coverlet of slate, much altered by
heat.
The granite looks as though stratified, but this is deceptive. It is
so unequally mixed that some flakes or layers are harder and more
resistant to atmospheric forces than are others, and where the
granite is soft it gives way, presenting a laminated appearance.
Moreover, the granite is full of joints. Where these joints are
vertical and numerous, there the rocky masses break into fragments.
Bellever Tor is a good instance. This imposing mass looks as though,
when rising out of the Flood, it had shaken itself, like a poodle,
to dry itself, and in so doing had shaken itself to bits. Lustleigh
Cleave is another instance. Every tor is surrounded by a "clitter"
(Welsh _clechir_), and these clitters are due to the disintegration
of the granite in horizontal beds, and then on account of their
joints horizontal and diagonal, falling into confused heaps. Where
the joints are not numerous and not close together, there the
rocks cohere and form tors. In many, as Vixen Tor and Mis Tor, the
pseudo-bedding lines are very distinct. Where the soft beds are
infrequent, there the granite forms great cake-like blocks as in
Hey Tor. The tors are, in fact, the more solid cores as yet not
overthrown by natural agencies. Such a core is Bowerman's Nose, and
around it is the "clitter" of rock that once encased it.
Granite is very pervious to water, as everyone knows who lives in a
house built of it by modern architect and masons.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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