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ON THE DRIFT IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF 

 WOOLHOPE. 



BY THE REV. F. MEKEWETHEK, B.C.L. 



From my residence at Woolhope I have been enabled to bestow more time 

 and attention to the formations and disturbances of this neighbourhood than 

 others, who come here for a day, or perhaps only a few hours. 



It is, however, chiefly with regard to the subject of Drift, that I now 

 wish to call the attention of the members of the Woolhope Club ; particu- 

 larly as I have not been able to discover in any account of the Geology of this 

 neighbourhood the slightest allusion to those Drifts which I will now endea- 

 vour to describe. 



In the first place, then, a section of debris, washed down from higher 

 ground, is visible in a meadow on the right hand side of the road leading from 

 the village at Woolhope towards Ledbury, where on the sides of a prill of water 

 running in a direct line towards Sollars Hope, may be seen, between the road 

 and a bridge having a footpath over it, a considerable quantity of Drift, which 

 has filled up the low ground to a level surface. In this particular place, the 

 Drift as far as at present can be determined, is only from one to two feet in 

 thickness, but it is still visible on the sides of an open drain for at least 100 

 yards above it, and for the same distance below, as well as on the eastern side 

 at about 80 yards from this watercourse (which is entirely artificial, and was 

 originally made to carry off the superfluous water from the moat which sur- 

 rounded the old Court House ;) while from the uniformly level appearance of the 

 meadow and adjoining land it is not unreasonable to assume that it extends over 

 several acres. The Drift itself is composed for the most part of small rounded 

 pieces of Wenlock limestone imbedded in white earthy matter. 



From it I have obtained the following specimens of Wenlock limestone 

 fossils, generally too much rolled to be determined, none specifically, and only 

 a few indeed generically ; -viz., Corals, HelMites; Omphyma. Orthoccras frag- 

 ment, small Bellerophon, Ehynconella, Atrypa reticularis, &c. It will be observed 

 that not the slightest fragment of Llandovery Sandstone is to be found in this 

 Drift. 



But it is on the S.W. side of this valley of elevation that the greatest 

 amount of Drift is observable. 



In the village of Fownhope, nearly opposite the Green Man inn, a section 

 of about two feet in thickness, though, in all probability, it greatly exceeds this, 

 may be seen by the road-side, over a footpath leading to the bridge opposite the 



