Aiimrcrsanj Address. 33 



Huntley, and then up the Silurian rocks to Little London." 

 Following the Wenlock limestone from this place they reached 

 the Caradoc sandstone, the oldest formation in this district, on 

 the summit of May Hill. The elevation of this summit remain 

 yet to be determined by the Club, as a mercurial thermometer 

 which had 'been brought by one of the party was out of order, 

 and an aneroid one, which was being carried up the hill, " ere 

 we reached the summit," says Mr. Baker, " was observed to 

 fall — not by degrees (as was expected), but in a most unexpected 

 manner — plump from a handkerchief to the ground." From the 

 top of May Hill a most perfect panorama was exhibited to the 

 Club. Northwards the sienite ridge of the Malverns fore- 

 shortened into a cluster of volcanic cones. On their left the 

 Abberley Hills, and beyond them again theClee Hills in Shrop- 

 shire. To the westward, looking across the Wenlock and Lud- 

 low deposits, and the old red sandstone in the valley, — whose 

 enormous thickness is proved by the fact, that for a breadth of 

 two miles it is raised at an angle of 50°, — are seen the Dean 

 Forest Hills, consisting of carboniferous limestone and the coal- 

 measures ; and in the far distance the South Wales coal-field 

 and the old red sandstone of the Black Mountains. Across the 

 Severn, looking over the rich vale of Berkeley, with the higher 

 ground of Tortworth, lay the low oolitic escarpment of the Cots- 

 wolds from Badminton to Bristol. Stinchcombe Hill was seen 

 advanced far in front of the main line ; Cam Down at the mouth 

 of the Dursley and Uley valley; and Selsly Hill guarding the 

 widely ramified Stroud valley ; Painswick Beacon towering over 

 the rest. Robin Hood, Churchdown, Cleve and Bredon Hills 

 carry the eye to where the Broomsgrove Lickey is almost lost 

 behind the east shoulder of the Malverns, and thus is completed 

 a more perfect panorama, whether to the geologist or the mere 

 lover of scenery, than is to be found elsewhere perhaps in the 

 south of England. 



On their way down May Hill the party encountered a peculiar 

 kind of quaking bog covered with a crust of clay, bearing scanty 

 grass, sufficiently dry to crack on the surface to an inch or so in 

 depth, yet sufficiently elastic to form regular waves when any 

 one stepped on it, over a surface of seven or eight yards : sheep 

 and even cattle grazed on these bogs in safety ; but a boy 



