«o there, surely the argument would be all the stronger for the clean sweep by 

 violent force of all this enormous mass of solid matter from the whole surface 

 of the county ^^dthout leaving a trace behind it. 



It is e vident, beyond all question, that the violence of the power which threw 

 up the Malvern Hills chiefly afifected the district on the western side, and it 

 was the consideration of these circumstances, and the necessary conclusion that 

 the crust of the eai-th had been here thus much lessened in thickness, that 

 led Mr. Flavell Edmunds to give that theory of the Hereford earthquake 

 of 1803 in the Hereford Times, — an explanation that was copied into so many 

 newspapers, though the authority was acknowledged in so very few. Hereford- 

 shire was not the only coxmty affected. If this county lost all the rocks above the 

 Old Ked Sandstone, "Worcestershh-e lost all above the New Red Sandstone. 

 The great denuding force became less and less severe in its effects as it ad- 

 vanced eastward, until you find the Lias, Oolites, Green-sand, and Chalk in 

 Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, and the Eastern counties. Might the vipheaving 

 force have been at once exerted here to bring the Old Red Sandstone to the level 

 — a " fault " on a magnificent scale ? Was the whole country then covered with 

 water, or did water at once wash off and supply the place of the removed rocks, 

 leaving the upheaval of the whole district to be effected by slow degrees over a 

 long period of time? Or have both causes of denudation, that by strong currents 

 of water, and that by the gradual effect of existing powers of disintegration, com- 

 bined together, with the gradual upheaval of the whole surface to produce 

 the present state of circumstances ? 



The holes before us tell us nothing of this. They tell, doubtless, of 

 subaqueous formations. We have a layer of clay that indicates a period of 

 comparative rest under water — a layer of drift stones that proves the existence 

 of powerful currents to place them upon it on the side of this high hill ; and 

 lastly, another period of rest to cover them with the layer of clay, which is stiU 

 foxir feet thick notwithstanding all the agencies at work — the frost and snow to 

 loosen it, and the rains to wash it off into the valleys below. Then, again, the 

 drifts and gravels left at varying levels aU tlirough the country, and the ice 

 boulders left on the mountain sides, all concur in proving a former subaqueous 

 period, and in pointing out that the upheaval must have been a work of slow and 

 gradual progress. It would be interesting to examine the surface soils on all 

 the other hills of the county, especially in the neighbourhood of the Malvern 

 hills. In short, I trust the geologists will soon come to the clays ; and now, Mr. 

 President, I have done the best I can with the drift, and have certainly drifted 

 myseK very far out of my depth. WUl any geologist present kindly favour 

 us with his views on the denudation of Herefordshire and the deposit of its 

 clays ? (applause). 



J. E. Lee, Esq., said it was far easier to ask such questions than to answer 

 them. The President thought there was no time to do so then if he coxild, 



