22 Devon Notes and Qutrtes, disaster, known locally as the " great November gale.*' The effect of this storm is said to have been a considerable en- croachment of the sea, revealing large quantities of shells, bones, and teeth. Shells were not much out of place by the sea, but the bones and teeth were a puzzle. The only way in which they could account for them was to surmise that they must in some way have been the result of a vast number of shipwrecks in ancient times. This great November gale of the Bantham villagers, is, I think, to be identified as the great storm of 1703, which took place on the 23rd of November and four following days. To corroborate the Bantham tradition as to the violence of this storm, there is the destruction of the Eddystone light- bouse, 14 miles distant, in which Winstanley, the architect, perished. By this storm and succeeding storms during the last two hundred years, great quantities of the refuse have been swept away. Miss Fox, writing fifty years ago, relates that cart- loads of bones were taken away by the farmers for manure. There still remain buried in the sand, very considerable quantities, which are exposed occasionally by a high tide during stormy weather. The great extent and depth of the deposit might seem to indicate that a considerable population once existed on the spot, but as we are not limited to time it would perhaps be more reasonable to conclude that the heaps of waste represents the litter and sweepings of a small number of people accumulating in a long period of time, preserved from decay to a great extent by the blown sand. It is said that Winstanley, confident in the stability of his edifice, had wished to be in it during the hardest gale that had ever blew. The fact that the Bantham refuse heaps, which had been accumulating since neolithic times, were partially diluviated by this storm, goes to shew it was the greatest atmospheric disturbance in this part of the world since the quaternary epoch. H. L. Jenkins. Illustrations, — I. Spindle wheel. II. Stone axe. III. Handle of amphora. IV. Comb of horn and bone, metal rivets, similar to one in British Museum, said to be from a Saxon grave. V. Fragment of stone, per- haps portion of a hand mill. VI. Spindle wheel, made of pieces of Roman pottery. VII. Top of lamp. VIII. Do. IX, X, XI and XII. Bone awls. XIII. Frag nents of Pre-Roman Pottery.
