52 



of the ridge must have taken place at a time when the country on that side was 

 below the level of the sea, by the waters of which those rocks were subsequently 

 deposited. 



The tract of country to the westward, being composed of the Old Red Sand- 

 stone and Silurian Rocks, belongs to and represents the palaeozoic or most ancient 

 period of the existence of our earth ; while the strata eastward of the Malverns, 

 belong to the mesozoic, or middle ages of geologic history. Looking westward, 

 he pointed out the remarkable manner in which the strata between the syenite 

 and the Old Red Sandstone of Herefordshire are arranged in rude concentric 

 semicircles, having the hill on which they stood for their centre ; the shales, 

 being softer, had been hollowed out by tlie action of water into valleys, while the 

 harder materials, resisting that action, had been left as ridges. Curving round 

 the immediate base of the hill is an undulating valley, the stratum in which is the 

 Black Shale of Howler's Heath. Beyond this, at a distance of about one mile, 

 runs a low ridge, terminating at the hill to their right, another of the summits of 

 the Malverns, called Holly -bush Hill. The substance of this ridge is a sandstone 

 which Sir Roderick Murchison has named, from its termination, the Holly-bush 

 Sandstone. Beyond this is a second valley formed of the Caradoc Sandstone {so 

 called from Caer Caradoc in Shropshire, where it is also found), wh.ich also 

 extends part of the way up the next ridge, of which the Obelisk Hill is part. 

 The next valley is composed of the Wenlook Shale, beyond which is the long hill 

 called the Ridgeway, composed of Wenlook limestone. Westward of this are 

 found the Lower Ludlow Shale, and then a ridge composed of the Aymestrey 

 Rock ; then the Upper Ludlow Shale, and then the Upper Ludlow Rocks. 

 Next to these lies the Old Red Sandstone of Herefordshire, with the isolated 

 hill of Silurian rock, called Shucknall. 



The force exerted in the elevation of the Malverns has left many evidences 

 in the disturbance of the strata ; and the semi-circular arrangement shows that 

 the centre of the disturbing force was in the Ragged Stone Hill. Far to the 

 north may be observed the elevated range of the Clee Hills coal-field, and to the 

 south, the similarly elevated coal-fields of Dean Forest ; and it has been demon- 

 strated almost as clearly as was possible in geology, that these two patches formed 

 the remains of a vast coal-field, which with the other strata of the Carboniferous 

 system, once covered the whole of Herefordshire. For a height of at least two 

 miles and a half, these strata once stretched above the present surface of the 

 district ; but it was afterwards submerged in the sea, and the combined action of 

 the water and the atmosphere broke down and swept off the whole of those strata. 

 Prior to that event, the elevation of the district must have been about that of the 

 Alps, but with the exception of the Clee Hills and the Forest of Dean, the whole 

 of the Carboniferous strata have been swept off into the depths of the Atlantic 

 Ocean. After that denudation the surface was again raised above the level of the 

 ocean, and the Malvern Hills formed a bold coast to the Straits of Malvern. The 

 tremendous convulsion which thus raised the western side has produced probably 

 the most stupendous "line of fault " which is known to have occurred anywhere. 



