ON THE SALT SPRINGS OF WORCESTERSHIRE. 363 



Tay, at Perth, before issuing from the narrow pass between the 

 hills of Kinnoul and Moncrief, affords an instance. 



The necessary consequence resulting from the town of Droit- 

 wich being built in a valley is, that from whatever road you enter 

 it, you must descend. The approach from the south is by the 

 Worcester road, and when within a quarter of a mile of Droit- 

 wich, after having travelled for some miles on gravel, you arrive 

 at an eminence of Red Marl, which is exposed to view. This 

 eminence is about eighty feet higher than the bed of the canal, 

 which runs through the town ; and the high, marly ground, is con- 

 tinued to the east and to the west, forming a line of low hills to 

 the south of the town. Descending by a gentle slope, you 

 arrive in the valley, where the houses are built on the Salwarp, 

 the small stream before noticed, which springs from Bromsgrove 

 Lickey, having all the way a gravelly bed. If when in Droit- 

 wich you look to the north, you see rising ground springing up 

 rather precipitately. This is Dodderhill, which is close to 

 Droitwich ; the church is built upon marl, resembling that 

 which has been noticed as occurring to the south of the town, 

 and there is a good section of it exposed to view. Dodderhill 

 is, however, still higher than the marly banks to the south. It 

 is nearly 100 feet above the canal, and this high ground is con- 

 tinued easterly and westerly. Passing out of Droitwich on the 

 east side by the Hanbury road, you do not so immediately 

 ascend ; but at the distance of less than a mile from the town, at 

 Hanbury Wharf, the ground is seventy feet higher than the bed 

 of the canal, and near this place, on the side of the road, there 

 is a section of marl. To the west, towards Kidderminster, the 

 ground rises in about the same ratio as towards the east, but not 

 so abruptly as to the south and north ; and here also, at the 

 extremity of the town, are sections of red marl with green veins, 

 Droitwich, then, may be considered as lying at least seventy feet 

 lower than any of the ground in its immediate vicinity. 



In every part of the county that I have been just describing, 

 even near Dodderhill, there are gravel beds, varying very much 

 in thickness; and the pebbles and stones contained in these beds 

 are chiefly disintegrations from the older rocks, consisting of 

 Quartz, Sienite, Granite, Trap, Old Red Sandstone, &c. I have 

 not yet heard of any fossil bones of the Mammoth and Hippo- 

 potamus having been discovered in them. 



Lias. — At the part of the Red Marl formation we have been 

 now considering, and where the salt is principally found, we 

 aj)proach a different geological formation. This is the Lias 

 Limestone, which is higher in the series of rocks than the 

 sandstone formation. It extends in this county from near 

 Bentley and Hanbury, in a line nearly southwards, to the junction 

 of Worcestershire with Gloucestershire, near Tewkesbury. It is 

 of importance to bear in mind, that wherever salt has been found 

 in this county, it has been at no great distance from the junction 



