?.^'>^o'>l y which raked the Malvern HillsM *jM S65 



ctirves iiito \thich some parts of the Bidge Hill'nekr Abberley 

 are compressed. (Mem. Geol. Surv., vol. ii. p. 151.) 



At numerous other points, as we proceed northwards along the 

 eastern limit of the elevated district, or southwards by May Hill 

 to Tort worth, we find indications of the same great line of fault. 

 Sometimes, as at Oswestry and Higley, these faults have affected 

 the Lower New Red Sandstone as well as the Carboniferous 

 rocks, proving that here at least the elevatory movement was 

 subsequent to the commencement of the Permian epoch. Gene- 

 rally the great marginal fault seems to have formed a nearly' ver- 

 tical cliff, against which the Upper or Triassic portion of the New 

 Red Sandstone was deposited, as in the Shropshire coal-field, at 

 Bewdley, Abberley, Malvern, May Hill and Pyrton Passage. 



The Cambrian and Herefordshire area having now become 

 elevated many thousand feet above the eastern region, and the 

 volcanic forces having spent their energy in thrusting up and 

 overturning the syenite and incumbent strata of Malvern, a 

 period of comparative tranquillity ensued. The elevated region 

 had become dry land, while the downcast area remained beneath 

 the sea. The sands and marls of the Triassic series filled up the 

 bed of this sea, while its littoral waves, beating against the sye- 

 nitic cliffs of Malvern, formed accumulations of conglomerate 

 such as those of Rosemary Rock and the Berrow and Woodbury 

 Hills. The oolitic, cretaceous, and tertiary formations were suc- 

 cessively piled upon the triassic rocks, and may possibly have 

 raised this downcast area to the same level as the upcast portion, 

 though there is no evidence that they ever ov;erlaid the latter in 

 the region west of the Severn. ^^-^^d .y^fj ^nr* 



The elevated area meanwhile was undergoing a vast amount 

 of denudation. During the long ages of the Triassic and Oolitic 

 systems, it was doubtless exposed to atmospheric degradation, 

 and supplied the adjacent ocean with much of its sedimentary 

 matter, as has been ably shown by Prof. Ramsay (Mem. Geol. 

 Surv., vol. i. p. 297). The denuding forces which were so active 

 in the Pliocene period terminated these vast operations, and gave 

 to this rugged and dislocated area those smooth undulating out- 

 lines which it now generally presents. 



I trust that I have now in some degree confirmed and extended 

 the proofs adduced by the geological suiTcyors of the elevation 

 and subsequent denudation of the Cambrian region, and that I 

 have shown how the peculiar phsenomena of the Malvern district 

 may be explained by the supposition of a local development of 

 plutonic energy superadded to a more general upheaving force. 



Phil, Mag, S. 4, Vol. 2, No. 12. Nov, 1851, 2 C 



