of the Malvern Hills. 93 



that dip, and on that side the summits are more abrupt, and 

 the acclivities less clothed with vegetation. The highest hills 

 of the range, viz. the North Hill and the Worcestershire and 

 Herefordshire Beacons, have a more perpendicular slope to 

 the north ; and throughout the whole range, the angle of the 

 acclivity is greater on the southern and eastern than on the nor- 

 thern and western aspects. The ridges are also much more nu- 

 merous and distinctly marked on the north-east, than any where 

 else. 



There are, strictly speaking, only five valleys, and all of these 

 run in transverse directions ; nor is there a single valley to 

 be met with running longitudinally with the mountain-range. 

 Wherever they occur, roads are cut through them ; the deep- 

 est is the one through which the road passes from Sedbury to 

 Cheltenham. No boulder-masses or field-stones are found in 

 these valleys ; and the alluvial or transported soil seldom ex- 

 ceeds twenty or thirty feet in depth on the base of the hills. 



No river of any magnitude takes its rise from this range. 

 The springs are numerous : there are eight to the west, and as 

 many if not more to the east ; they have long been remarkable for 

 their purity, but have only met with a few advocates for any pe- 

 culiar medical efficacy, their chemical analysis not favouring any 

 such views. They are so superficial, that experiments on their 

 temperature did not afford an approximation sufficiently identi- 

 cal, or approaching to the mean temperature oi the latitude or 

 locality, to be worth recording. Those rising on the east run 

 their course immediately into the Severn : those on the west, on 

 the contrary, divide in their direction from the Herefordshire 

 Beacon, which is thus shewn to be, though not the^highest hill, 

 yet the most elevated part of the range corresponding to its geo- 

 gnostical importance. Those to the south run into a stream 

 which joins the Severn at Gloucester : those on the north join 

 the river Cadwell, which unites with the Terne, the latter fir 

 nally emptying its waters into the Severn at Leigh near Wor- 

 cester. 



latter, exemplifying that the same rules exist with segments of spheres, as 

 Buffon has laid down with respect to angles, and thus the valley through 

 which passes the Sedbury road is formed. 



