S90 Professor J. Phillips, [March 13, 



At this point of geological time, the surface of the syenite, 

 where it is now covered by Hollybush sandstone, may very pro- 

 bably have been sunk to the depth of at least 8,000 feet.* 



In a tract of country lying not far to the south of Malvern, and 

 stretching through the South Wales coalfield, westward to and 

 beyond the extremity of Ireland, and eastward through Belgium and 

 across the Rhine, the depression of the sea-bed continued ; and the 

 whole series of carboniferous deposits, in the sea and at the border 

 of the sea, to the depth of three miles, was accumulated. There is 

 9W evidence that this took place on the lines of Mayhill, the Mal- 

 vern and Abberley hills ; rather, by some want of conformity of 

 the coal to the old red at Newent, on the line of boundary between 

 old and new red from Newent to Hatfield, and again north of Mal- 

 vern, and along the Abberley hills, — it appears that the old red 

 and Silurian strata on this tract had been uplifted, folded, and 

 even wasted by surface action, before the date of the coal strata. 

 Thus may be explained the absence of mountain limestone, for so 

 great a space along the tract, of which Malvern is the centre, and 

 probably the same arguments apply to the very limited exhibition 

 of coal deposits on this line. Such deposits of limestone and of 

 coal may have existed farther west, where the depression perhaps 

 continued, and been removed by surface waste ; and they may still 

 exist farther east under the vale of the Severn, covered up and 

 protected by later deposits. 



Abberley Hills. 



r:^ 



TV 'nv L K 



k, /, 7W, n, Silurian strata folded and worn away at top by surface action, 

 prior to deposition of q, coal, and r, Permian conglomerate. At o, Old red and 

 upper Ludlow are seen overthrown. The fault depresses the strata on the 

 eastern side, where triassic beds, (s) occur. 



From this mere sketch of a great subject, it appears that the 

 upward and downward movements of ground, which in the volcanic 

 region of Italy, and the Palaeozoic tracts of Scandinavia, affect us 

 with a lively interest, are the modern differentials, by which to inte- 

 grate the far grander phenomena of the unstable earth-crust of 



* The thickness of the old red sandstone being above 4000 feet in the 

 country west of Malvern, and that of the Silurians, somewhat less than 4000. 



