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up in close contiguity witli tlie Old Red Sandstone. In consequence of tliis the 

 Lower Ludlow shales have heen compressed and shut in, and for both these 

 reasons less denuded than the corresponding beds on the other side of the 

 district. When then the ridges passed beyond influence of the cornstones , they 

 yielded more to the developing force ; the inner one became violently twisted, 

 and the outer one broken asunder : this dislocation may be well seen near the 

 Nash Tump at Fownhope. The most important fault of all has taken place at 

 Mordiford in a direction W.S.W. to E.N.E., along the present course of the 

 Pentelow brook. I believe that according to the principles of geological 

 dynamics it is exactly in this direction, being at right angles to the axial line 

 of elevation, that we might have expected a fault on theory. By it all the beds 

 have been broken across, and while the dome on the E. side of the brook moved 

 upwards, it left deep beneath the surface on the W. side the main body with 

 which it was united. This fault is crossed by the section in Fig. 2, but to 

 attain clearness even at the expense of accuracy it has been unnoticed. Had 

 not this fracture of beds happened, the "Woolhope Limestone would have lined 

 the dome all round, instead of being shut out for a quarter of a mile ; the 

 valley of Wenlock Shale, instead of being here merely nominal, would have 

 been continued from Checkley Common to Littlehope with a gradually 

 diminishing breadth; Marion's Hill would have been thrown forward to 

 its rightful position opposite the boss over the toll bridge at Evenpit, and 

 instead of the crumpled ridges with their combes from Prior's Frome to Stoke 

 Edith, we should have had one continuous ridge dipping down at a very 

 steep angle. From Dormington Wood to Mordiford the Wenlock ridge is 

 almost lost, having apparently, from some cause or other, suffered the same 

 denudation as the shales above and below it. For this reason and the 

 irregularity occasioned by the Mordiford fault, the view of the district from 

 Backbury is less conducive to a clear comprehension of its interesting pheno- 

 mena than that from Seager or Marcle HUL The visitor also who begins his 

 exploration at Mordiford will feel some perplexity. In Appendix (2) I have 

 given some suggestions for pedestrian explorers, and if this order of routes be 

 kept, the secrets of the district will be gradually unravelled and many 

 diflSculties obviated. 



The drainage has been determined by the inclination of the axis of eleva- 

 tion. When the district emerged from the glacial sea, the E. side was higher 

 than the W., and Seager HLU became a watershed. The largest brook is the 

 Pentelow, which results from the confluence, at a sharp corner of the Woolhope 

 Limestone, of rivulets from Canwood and Dormington Wood, and after re- 

 ceiving a tributary from the Limekiln Bank, flows into the Lugg at Mordiford 

 through a gorge originating with the fault, but widened by the continuous 

 passage of many boisterous currents of salt and fresh water, laden with the 

 dibris of the hills and valleys. Two other brooks, made up of many streamlets, 

 pass through smaller gorges at Fownhope and SoUers Hope. Many landslips 

 have been caused partly by the steepness of the dip on the outside ridge and 



