On the Existence of a Submairine Triassic Outlier in the English Channel off the Lizard

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Abstract
It is with great pleasure that I am able to report to the geological Society the existence of a submarine Triassic outlier in the English Channel, off the Lizard. The possibility of the presence of Triassic rocks in the Channel-area has been more than once suggested, and the occasional dredging of a fragment of sandstone has strengthened the hypothesis: no distinct evidence has, however, until now been procured. A short time since Mr. Matthias Dunn, of Mevagissey, who is intimately acquainted with all the conditions of the Channel fishery, called my attention to the fact of the frequent occurrence of sandstone fragments in the bed of the Channel in a certain direction, and at my desire promised to supply me with a series of specimens. This he has now done, and the facts thus revealed are of a very remarkable character. All the examples were brought up entangled in the hooks of the fishermen's “long lines,” which are laid along the sea-bottom for distances ranging even up to six miles. The positions from which the rocks come can therefore be ascertained with considerable precision; and each specimen or group of specimens was accompanied by its compass-bearing on some well-known point of the land, and the distance thence in miles. The bearings are magnetic and strictly correct; the distances are estimated, and therefore liable to a certain amount of error; though from constant practice and their knowledge of the peculiarities of the sea-bottom the fishermen are singularly accurate in these estimates.

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