1857.] on the Malvern Hills, 389 



limited band, containing fragments of the syenite, mixed with many 

 shells and corals, and some trilobites. This is seen in contact with 

 the syenite at the western foot of the Worcester Beacon, in vertical 

 strata, ripple-marked on the surface, and perfectly free from any 

 metamorphic effect. It is somewhat surprising to find such delicate 

 encrinites as hypanthocrinus and dimerocrinus, lying with rhyn- 

 conellse, favosites, petraiae, and palaechinus, mixed with masses of 

 syenite and felspar, mostly angular in shape, and evidently accu- 

 mulated near the places where they had first become detached, the 

 whole stratified, and the stratification vertical. This remarkable 

 deposit was discovered by a lady resident at Malvern, in 1842. 



During the deposition of the Mayhill group of laminated sand- 

 stones and shales, a downward movement of the whole sea-bed 

 must have taken place ; biit, towards the close of tliis period, the 

 descent must have become very slow, to allow for the almost purely cal- 

 careous, very shelly, and often coralliferous Woolhope limestone(A). 

 The most interesting locality where this appears at the surface is 

 in the little glen which descends westward from the north side of 

 the Worcester Beacon, and passes by the shelly conglomerate 

 bands above mentioned. In this glen, though now much obscured, 

 the Woolhope limestone may be seen in two principal bands alter- 

 nately with the Mayhill sandstones, and all the beds overthrown, 

 beyond the vertical, so as to appear to dip inwards towards the chain. 

 For the first notice of this remarkable fact we are indebted to Mr. 

 L. Horner, the first accurate explorer of this region. This phe- 

 nomenon of inverted strata, as they are called, appears at many 

 points to the northward ; and is well exhibited in the west flank 

 of the Abberley Hill, in Upper Silurian, and old red formations. 

 In the alternating sandstones and limestones under Worcester 

 Beacon, the groups of fossils are different. The depression of 

 the strata already indicated by the Mayhill shales and sandstones, 

 and the retardation in this process, marked by the bands of Wool- 

 hope limestone, were repeated in the case of the Wenlock shales (J), 

 surmounted by the coralliferous bands of the Wenlock limestone (A) ; 

 and again in the Ludlow shales (Z, w,) and their included layer of 

 Aymestry limestone {m), which in the Malvern district, are of less 

 importance than in some other tracts. At the very top of the 

 Ludlow series, we have the first positive indication of neighbouring 

 land in the portions of plants — small carbonaceous masses, — which 

 occur at Stoke Edith, on the borders of Woolhope Forest ; and on 

 the same horizon, and for a small depth below, occur the earliest 

 traces of fishes. In this upper part of the Silurians, sandy layers 

 prevail more than in any other part of the series above the Wen- 

 lock limestone. The Downton sandstone, which occurs in this 

 situation, offers an easy transition to the old red sandstones and 

 marls, rather than shales, with cornstone(o). The depression of 

 the sea bed continuing, alternate deposits of sandstone and marls, 

 capped by conglomerate, prevailed for several thousand feet. 



