2n8 



We shall add fresh interest to the subject, if we can ascertain the period 

 when this outburst took place ; we know that these Syenitic or hypersthenic 

 rocks are supposed to have been formed under water, when the whole district was 

 submerged. The searcher for fossils in the Upper Ludlow rock in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of Kington will be struck by the fact that he cannot find the 

 Orthoceratites and larger MoUusca in the same symmetrical state as in the 

 neighbourhood of Ludlow ; at Kington they are generally flattened, compressed, 

 or broken ; now this flattening, or compression, is attributable to either direct or 

 oblique pressure on the mould or cavity which the shell itself once occupied, 

 before the cast, which we now find, was perfectly formed. The outburst of a 

 large igneous mass, upheaving and bending the strata of the adjacent rocks, 

 would account for the pressure which these fossils exhibit. If we continue our 

 search upwards we shall find further evidence of the period of the outburst in the 

 fact that at Ivy Chimney and on other parts of Bradnor Hill, watervvorn pebbles 

 of the syenite of Stanner, pieces of partially calcined limestone, and boulders of 

 the red and white quartz (Upper Llandovery Conglomerate) of Old Radnor are 

 met with, imbedded in the Downton sandstone. I think, therefore, it may reason- 

 ably be assumed that the outburst took place when the Upper Ludlow rocks were 

 in an unconsolidated state, and while the deposits, which form the Downton 

 sandstone, were taking place. Hoping that you will e.xcuse this digression, I will 

 now return to the subject of the day's excursion. Passing through Can Wood, 

 our party halted on the summit of Nash sc£u-, to admire the view of the Nash and 

 Knill valley, the plain of Herefordshire, and distant Malvern hills, while our 

 Honorary member, Mr. J. E. Davis and his father. Dr. Davis, who first investi- 

 gated these limestone rocks and their fossil contents, pointed out the numerous 

 faults in the broken and wooded ground around, and the outlying patches of Old 

 Red Sandstone. Proceeding to Evenjobb, we ascended Evenjobb hill, where 

 quarries afforded good sections of the Lower Ludlow rocks. A small portion of 

 Pterygotus was here discovered. Descending the hill, and passing by Discoyd, 

 we reached Presteign, examining on our road several quarries of Upper Ludlow 

 rock. Thus terminated the last excursion of the year. 



I am able to record but few geological discoveries during the past year within 

 the district which the Woolhope Club considers to be its own. 



The Ludlow Bone-bed, since the publication of the " Silurian System," has 

 been considered to afford the earliest traces of vertebrated animals, but we now 

 know that the Lower Ludlow and Upper Ludlow rocks contain a species of 

 Pteraspis, nearly allied to the Pteraspides of the Downton sandstone, which 

 have been definitely placed among the Fishes by Professor Huxley, on a careful 

 comparison of their structure with that of Cephalaspis.* 



Mr. Lightbody, in a letter of some length, has kindly communicated to me 

 the resiflt of his labours ; among other discoveries he mentions a new species of 

 Anipyx, and a shell of small size, which Mr. Salter considers to be a new genus 

 allied to Siphonotreta in the Caradoc Shales of the Onny valley ; a new species 



* Huxley on Cephalaspis and Pteraspis. Quarterly Journal, Geological Society, vol, 14, p. 281. 



