290 Mr. J. Phillips on a Fossiliferous Conglomerate. 



In the deep cutting at the Wych, sandstones and shales of 

 the Caradoc formation are placed in a singular manner between 

 masses of trap, but are entirely unchanged in aspect, and re- 

 tain the usual organic remains. On the summit ridge near 

 Swinyard hill, the upper beds of the Caradoc series, with the 

 usual limestone bands and shales of that part of the Silurian 

 strata, rest against solid felspathic trap on the south side and 

 cover it as with a saddle. The corals and shells here gathered 

 were in their usual state, and the strata appear unaltered. 



Contrasting these cases with others in the midst of the 

 Malvern hills, where stratified rocks are irregularly mixed 

 with the fused rocks, and have the character of gneiss, and with 

 others on the western flanks where dykes and bosses of trap 

 appear amongst peculiar sandstones and black shales, it ap- 

 peared probable that some parts at least of the Malvern ridge 

 were of higher antiquity than any of the exterior strata ; that 

 amongst the lowest of these strata, local and limited irruptions 

 of a different sort of trap had occurred ; but that the greater 

 part of the Silurian strata visible in the northern parts of the 

 hills had been subject to no peculiar heat emanating from the 

 Malvern ridge. 



In this condition of the argument Mr. Murchison and 

 Count Keyserling passed through Malvern and inspected the 

 section of the Wych, as well as the north end of the Malverns, 

 and Professor Sedgwick accompanied me on a leisurely survey 

 of this and other points further south. On the day (Au- 

 gust 1) while I was enjoying the advantage of his experience 

 in examining the facts thus briefly adverted to, a discovery 

 was made which threw a new and concentrated light on the 

 phaenomena we were discussing. 



My sister, knowing the interest I felt in tracing out the hi- 

 story of the stratification visible in these trap hills, sought dili- 

 gently for organic remains in the midst of and on the western 

 flanks of the sienitic masses of the North hill and Sugar-loaf 

 hill. In this most unpromising search she was entirely suc- 

 cessful, and collected from the midst of heaps of fallen stones, 

 which seemed to be all trap, several masses richly charged 

 with organic remains, and full of felspar, quartz, and horn- 

 blende, in grains and large lumps. On careful examination, 

 it was seen that those lumps were fragments, generally rolled 

 to pebbles, and distributed with reference to one another and 

 to the shells, just as quartz pebbles and chips are in a com- 

 mon conglomerate. It was, in fact, certainly and evidently 

 a conglomerate full of Silurian shells, and pebbles and frag- 

 ments of the sienitic, felspatho-quartzose and other rock- 

 masses of the Malvern hills. 



