130 iirroETs or meetings. 



strata, e^g.^ tlie fi-eestone beds, and so on, but shortly dismissed 

 the party, in order that they might ply their hammers for 

 awhile, adding that when they assembled again at one o'clock, 

 he would give them a detail lecture on the geology of the district, 

 and leading them round the hill, would point out the several 

 beds, and some of the more important features to be observed. 



As far as the find of fossils is concerned, we cannot say that 

 the search in the quarry and waste heaps met with the success 

 expected ; everyone was ready to abandon the quest when the 

 piping of the whistle told them that the lecture was about to 

 begin.' 



Dr. "Wright commenced by pointing to the broad vale of the 

 Severn, on the far side of which were seen to advantage the 

 range of the Malverns and May Hills ; while on the Leck- 

 hampton side extended the long table-land of the Cotteswolds, 

 with its spurs and bays and detached outliers, rising in the Hill 

 above to the height of nine hundred and sevety-eight feet. jN"ow to 

 the geologist there was the greatest difference between these two 

 ranges. The Malverns were the type of ''the old life," — the 

 beings that peopled the world when those deposits were forming 

 were all Palaeozoic forms. Moreover, the axis of the Hill was 

 formed of metamorphic rocks, which are some of the oldest in 

 Great Britain, and date from times immeasurably remote. The 

 Cotteswolds, on the other hand, showed no metamorphic or 

 plutonic rocks ; they consisted also of beds following each other 

 without any great unconformability, and all the living organisms 

 of that period belonged to the Kainozoic, or new order of beings. 



Eetween these two ranges flowed comparatively recently the 

 sea, — a straight between two old coast lines; in fact the valley 

 of the Severn is often called by geologists " the ancient straits of 

 Malvern." 



The physical geography of the Cotteswolds was next briefly 

 and lucidly explained, comprehension being much aided by the 

 fine large diagram and section which Dr. Wright had brought 

 with him^ and which was spread open before the party. In a 



