100 



in the dark, and it was in that walk, which I continue to regard as one of the most 

 interesting events of my life, there dawned upon me the vision of the deep interest 

 of the then comparatively unknown country, in which it was my good fortune 

 and happiness to be dwelling, and to the true development of which I had, unknow- 

 ingly, discovered the key, and made some progress. With what zeal, industry, 

 ability and success Sir Roderick Murchison has followed up these beginnings, 

 and prosecuted the identification of these rocks, through our own and the adjoining 

 counties, and the greater part of the North of Europe, into Asiatic Russia, is 

 shown by his great works on the Silurian System (1838), and the Geology of Russia 

 and the Ural Mountains (1845), and the various scientific journals of the time; 

 and how far it has been verified by the researches of others, more especially by 

 the United States' naturalists, will be seen in their own reports, and Sir Charles 

 Lyell's interesting volumes on his two visits to that country. We shall have a 

 condensed view of the known distribution of these rocks over the Globe, by Sir 

 Roderick Murchison, in his new work " Siluria," now announced.* The history 

 of the Silurian system must be sought in the proceedings of the Geological Society 

 of London, the anniversary speeches of its Presidents, and in an article by Dr. 

 Fitton, in the Edinburgh Review, April, 1841. 



The Leintwardine meeting afforded us an excellent opportunity in the section 

 along the new road to Ludlow, for examining the lower Ludlow rocks, between 

 the Aymestry and Wenlock (=Sedgley and Dudley) limestones ; and passing 

 through the Aymestry limestone, we came upon the upper Ludlow rocks, 

 which we found again succeeded by the Aymestry limestone at Downton, 

 and on both sides of the river Teme, near the Bow Bridge. Continu- 

 ing thence along the Downton Castle walks, in the gorge of the river, 

 through the upper Ludlow rocks, we arrived at their junction with the 

 yellow micaceous sandstone (known as Downton Castle building stone), near the 

 Castle bridge ; noticing heref the hitherto discovered northern limit of the 

 Silurian fish-bed, the exact position of which was pointed out, and fragments of 

 it collected. Our section proceeding now in a descending order, again we passed 

 the upper limestone on the ridge of the Ludlow promontory, here forming the 

 northern side of the Wigmore valley of elevation, over the obscured escarpment 

 to the thinned-out strata of the Wenlock ( ~ Dudley and Ledbury) limestone, 

 to the productive organic shales (known as Wenlock Shales) at Burrington. The 



* Published May, 185^, of which a new edition is now preparing. The reader will do well to 

 consult the reviews of this woric, in the North British Review and Quarterly Review, October, 

 1854. 



t My friend, the late Dr. Thomas Lloyd, of Ludlow, in 1832 first noticed the existence of 

 fossils in the Old Red Sandstone of Herefordshire about the Wyld, near Leominster, and soon 

 afterwards near Downton Hall and other places in the neighbourhood of Ludlow. Onchus 

 Murchisoni was discovered by myseli in the mudstones of the upper Ludlow, near Batchcott, 

 1833, and Pterygotus problematicus in the exact equivalent, near Croft Castle, in 1835. The 

 Ludlow bone bed was laid open 1S34, by workmen engaged in a quarry — now filled up — on the 

 site of the house at the entrance 10 Ludford churchyard from the bridge. Its position is near 

 the bottom of the yellow sandstone, known as Downton Castle building stone ; a repetition of 

 the bed, vertically separated several feet, wasobserved by the late Messrs. Scobie and Strickland, 

 at Hagley. Small spines had been previously noticed m corresponding beds at the Tin Mill 

 Coppice, near Bringewood. Traces of the fish bed have now been satisfactorily observed near 

 Kington, Lucton, Richard's Castle, Ludford, Downton Castle Bridge, round the Ludlow pro- 

 montory ; at Ha.;ley and Gamage Ford, round Woolhope ; and at Longhope, Biaisdon ^ge 

 cutting and Flaxley, in the prolongation of the upheaval towards the Severn. I have foundohig- 

 ments of it in the gravel between Leintwardine and Clungunford. 



