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HARD WICKE ' S S CIE NCE-GO SSI P. 



with many of us of sunny rambles in that delightful 

 district, where wooded hills and picturesque dales 

 afford umbrageous walks and undulating meadow-land. 

 Interesting and profitable too it is to the palceon- 

 tologist to spend a day in that locality where his 

 labours are sure to be rewarded with specimens such 

 as can only be found in very few other localities in 

 Great Britain. 



Turning again to our stony-book we find that 

 several pages are here missing. There is a marked 

 unconformity in the rocks which flank the Malvern 

 range, and a whole series — the Upper Cambrians of 

 Sedgwick, the Lower Silurians of Murchison, the 

 Cambro-Silurian of other authors and the Ordovicians 

 of Professor Lapworth, are absent. Let me invite 

 you to consider what this means. This unconformity 

 shows that while the Ordovicians were being de- 

 posited in Shropshire and Wales, the Malvern district 

 was high and dry above the sea, and formed part of 

 the coast line of an island or a promontory during 

 this epoch of the earth's history. Some years ago 

 Miss Phillips discovered a breccia of Llandovery 

 age, now locally known as Miss Phillips' conglomerate, 

 which is made up entirely of fragments of the older 

 Malvern rock upon which it rests unconformably. 

 Specimens of this conglomerate may be seen on the 

 landing, and many members of this club have also 

 obtained specimens. Now, the presence of Miss 

 Phillips's conglomerate proves conclusively this 

 point. 



The fossils of the Llandovery rocks are represented 



here by fucoids, annelides, corals, principally petraias, 



which are elegant little casts of cyathophyllum — 



brachiopods, such as Lingula parallela from the 



Obelisk Hill, L. Lewisii from Old Storridge ; Orthis 



alternate, and calligramma from Ankerdine, Rhyn- 



chonella, Strophomena, and Spirifera from Howler's 



Heath ; and, what is most interesting of all perhaps, 



a pentamerus in close contact with igneous rock from 



the Worcestershire Beacon. The Lamellibranchiata 



are represented by Avicula Fterinea and Ctcnodonta 



from Howler's Heath ; the trilobites by Phacops, 



encrinurus, and Calymene from Alfrick. The fossils, 



however, although thoroughly representative of the 



series, do not by any means include all the species or 



even genera which these rocks yield : and let us hope 



that at no distant date the exigencies of space will no 



longer preclude public spirited collectors from having 



an opportunity of adding fresh specimens and thus 



making the collection, now a most excellent one, 



still more worthy of this ancient and faithful city, 



and of the traditions of this museum.* 



The pentamerus beds of the May Hill sandstone 

 are also exposed at the Lickey, and casts of fossils it 

 is said may be obtained in abundance at the village 

 of Rubery. 



* Since writing this paragraph I have been told that there 

 are no less than forty boxes full of fossils unpacked, it being 

 impossible, from want of space, to exhibit them. 



Far more interesting, however, to the young 

 collector are the rocks which succeed the Llan- 

 dovery. 



The Wenlock series are noted far and wide for the 

 abundance and beauty of their fossil remains. Con- 

 sisting principally of limestones and shales, and 

 having a thickness at Malvern of 280 feet, the beds 

 form a most extensive and happy hunting-ground. 

 Disappointment has never yet attended a visit paid 

 to the Wenlock quarries, but bags well filled with 

 pretty forms of various species reward the visitor. 

 No longer are we limited to the casts of a few worm 

 tracks and some half-dozen other forms very difficult 

 to obtain, but at a single visit to a typical quarry in 

 this formation, more specimens could be obtained 

 than the collector would care to carry home. Of 

 varied beauty are the corals. Elegant little cup 

 corals from which potters might take many a unique 

 design, round or disc-shaped sun corals, the syrin- 

 gopora resembling the pipes of a miniature organ, 

 the halycites forming a network of chains, and the 

 star-shaped astrea, are forms more or less abundant 

 in the rocks, and all represented here. Of the 

 mollusca several fresh forms appear, no less than 

 eighty-six being enumerated by Sir Roderick 

 Murchison, but not one-half of which are to be found 

 in these cases. Of the sea-lilies, or encrinites, many 

 fine examples on slabs of Dudley limestone may be 

 examined. Of the trilobites, which, as long ago as 

 1 77 1, received this name in Walsh's "Natural History 

 of Petrifactions," there are sufficient examples here 

 to excite our admiration and wonder, although to 

 most of my hearers their forms and names will be 

 most familiar. Nor can we refrain, even in such 

 company, from contrasting the minute Olenus, 

 averaging the size of a pea, with the squat lumpy 

 Illcenus some four inches in length. Some of the 

 little creatures rolled up so tightly, remind us of the 

 wood-lice of our gardens. Neither can we always 

 refrain from expressing admiration at the elegance 

 of the body, the diversity of detail in the various 

 parts, or the wonderful construction of the eyes ; nor 

 to wonder why one species should possess no eyes at 

 all, and another, according to Owen, should have no 

 fewer than six thousand. As regards the number of 

 species of Silurian Crustacea, Murchison enumerates 

 no less than one hundred and ninety, but all are not 

 trilobites, a few being crustaceans of other types. In 

 this number so much variety is found in every part 

 that it would be tedious and outside the scope of this 

 paper to enter into details, but it might be useful to 

 indicate the general characters. The body is oval in 

 shape, and is separated by two longitudinal furrows 

 into three lobes — hence the name. The central lobe 

 of the head is called the glabella and is separated by 

 furrows from the cheeks, one part of each of which 

 is either movable or free, and bears the eyes. The 

 posterior angle of the cheeks is sometimes produced 

 into spines. The thorax is made up of segments 



