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Montgomeryshire, even to the far distant peaks of Snowdon, Cader Idria, and 

 Plinlimmon. A brief description of such geological features as came more nearly 

 within the field of vision, succeeded the serious business of luncheon. 



Turning to the westward, the eye is struck by the rugged outline of the 

 Stiperstones, caused by large masses of quartzose grit that stand out from the 

 Arenig (or, as they have more recently been pronounced, Tremadoc) shales of 

 which the hill is composed. These form the base of the Lower Silurian system of 

 which the Caradoc, or Bala, are the highest beds. Lying on the Stiperstones 

 rocks, still towards the west, are the strata of the Llandeilo formation, rising 

 boldly out of which is volcanic mass of Corndon. To the north-west, and beyond 

 the high ground of Upper Ludlow, which is known as the Long Mountain, 

 another igneous rock, the Breidden, is seen, the geologic outpost of England on 

 this Welsh border. Southward, the great Ludlow formation spreads itself, to be 

 seen in the line of Bringewood Chase and the wooded neighbourhood of the town 

 from which it takes its name ; while to the south-west, this same formation in 

 Clun forest is capped by outliers of Old Ked Sandstone. Looking now eastward, we 

 find a series of rocks thrown off, dipping in opposite directions to those of the wes- 

 tern beds, from the Longmynd as their axis. Just across the valley, through which 

 the railway runs, and in which the little town nestles, the pre-Cambrian hills of 

 Ragleth and Caer Caradoc form part of a line of the same age, which is extended by 

 the Lawley to the Wrekin ; and behind these lie, in regular succession, and at 

 decreasing inclinations, the members of the Silurian family — Caradoc, Llandovery, 

 Wenlock, and Ludlow, till they dip under the Old Red of Corve Dale. Out of 

 this are seen to rise, bounding the nearer view, the Brown and Titterstone Clee 

 Hills. These are formed of mountain limestone and millstone grit; evidence of 

 the cause of their upheaval being found in the basaltic crags at their summits, 

 overlaid with the coal measures. In parallel lines with the Caradoc and Lawley, 

 three ridges mark where the harder constituents of the rocks composing them have 

 resisted the action of denudation. The first of these denotes the presence of a 

 very tliin band of Woolhope limestone, resting on the May Hill sandstones. 

 Then, more conspicuously, the great limestone reef of Wenlock Edge ; and, be- 

 yond the narrow valley of Apedale, which succeeds it, thin bands of Aymestry 

 limestone show the highest point of the Ludlow, from which the ground slopes 

 down into Corve Dale. 



The coal measures meet the Longmynd Hill on its northern extremity, 

 followed by some patches of Permian, on one of which the town of Shrewsbury 

 is built, and beyond these, stretch beds of the upper New Red Sandstone, which 

 form the plain of North Shropshire and Cheshire. The rising ground a little to 

 the east of Shrewsbury, is Haughmond Hill, a separated portion of the Cambrian 

 strata of the Longmynd ; and to the north of the town, a scarped eminence marks 

 the well known New Red quarries of Grinshill. 



Numbers of poor people, in groups, were scattered over the hill, gathering, 

 the Bilberry or Whortleberry ( Vaccinium myrtillus), which they send or take to 



