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GEOLOGICAL FIELD ADDRESS, 



By T. CUELEY, Esq., C.E. 

 STANNER HILL, JUNE 26, 1866. 



The Woolhope Club possesses one of the most interesting districts In the British 

 Isles for the study of Geology. Taking Hereford as the head quarters of our club, 

 and describing a circle of 40 miles around it, we have within that radius the whole 

 of the upper and lower Palieozoic rocks, aud the whole of the Mesozoic rocks, with 

 the exception of the Cretaceous ; and what is more, on the Malvern hills we have an 

 example of the Laurentian formation so largely developed in Canada. The Cambrian 

 system within our circle can be examined at Church StrettoB ; the Llandeilo formation 

 at Llandegly and Llandrindod, the Llandovery at Mayhill and Woolhope, the Wenlock 

 and Upper Ludlow at Woolhope, Ludlow, and all around Stanner, where we now stand ; 

 the Old Red or Devonian all over Herefordshire ; the Carboniferous at Pontypool, Forest 

 of Dean, and Clee HUl ; and the Permian to the north of Bewdley. 



The following formations belonging to the Mesozoic series may be found within the 

 same circle, viz., the Trias at Worcester, the Lias along the banks of the Severn, between 

 Berkeley and Gloucester, and at Maindee, and the Oolitic at Stroud. 



The igneous rocks within this district are very remarkable, and I shall presently 

 refer to them. Hereford must certainly be considered the most central and convenient 

 head-quarters for the geological student, for there is no other city in Great Britain 

 that, within a circle of 40 miles, will embrace so many geological formations without 

 any break in the order. 



The great valley of the Wye, in the centre of which the city of Hereford is itself 

 placed, affords, too, a most promising opportunity to the physical geologist for the study 

 of Drifts and Gravel beds. We have there three distinct terraces of gravel, proving as 

 many distinct levels at which the Wye has stood in former remote periods. These 

 beds require careful investigation. Sir Charles LyeU, my friend the Eev. W. Symonds, 

 and many ether of our best practical geologists are now studying them closely in other 

 places. We must follow their example, and as they are worked, carefully watch for 

 any remains of organic life that may become exposed. In one of these terraces, in a 

 gravel bed near the Infirmary, the tooth of an elephant was found a few years since, 

 and two years ago I myself had the good fortune to find in an ancient gravel bed of the 

 Lugg near Dinmore the tooth of the Rhinoceros tichorinus, which I now exhibit to you, 

 and which is the only relic of that extinct pachyderm yet found in the county. The 

 beds are not rich in organic remains, but at any time they may possibly be discovered, 

 and probably have often been lost to science for want of an observer. 



The valley of elevation of Woolhope, from which our club takes its name, presents 

 a most interesting field of geological phenomena. There is na other example within so 

 short a space that gives the geologist better data for computing the amount of denudation 

 which has taken place since the upheaval of the Silurian rocks through the Old Red 

 Sandstone. The central dome of Llandovery rock is there flanked all around by highly 

 tilted formations of Wenlock Limestones, and Shales, and Upper and Lower Ludlow 

 formations, which were once continuous over, and concentrical with, the dome of the 

 Llandovery rock. It may be calculated that something like 3,000 feet of Silurian rocks 

 have been removed by denudation, without taking into account the immense mass of 



