BOVEY BEDS  , in

geology, a deposit of sands, clays and lignite, 200–300 ft. thick, which lies in a basin extending from Bovey Tracey to Newton Abbot in Devonshire, England . The deposit is evidently the result of the degradation of the neighbouring Dartmoor granite; and it was no doubt laid down in a lake . O . Heer, who examined the numerous plant remains from these beds, concluded that they belonged to the same geological horizon as the Molasse or Oligocene of Switzerland . Starkie Gardiner, however, who subsequently examined the flora, showed that it bore a close resemblance to that of the Bournemouth Beds or Lower Bagshot; in this view he is sup-ported by C . Reid . Large excavations have been made for theextraction of the clays, which are very valuable for pottery and similar purposes . The lignite or " Bovey Coal " has at times been burned in the local kilns, and in the engines and workmen's cottages, but it is not economical . See S . Gardiner, Q . J . G .

S .

London, xxxv., 1879; W . Pengelly and O . Heer, Phil . Trans., 1862; C . Reid, Q . J . G . S. lii., 1896, p . 490, and loc. cit. liv., 1898, p . 234 . An interesting general account is given by A .

W . Clayden, The

History of Devonshire Scenery (London, 1906), pp . 159-168 .