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prospect. Here the President called upon the Rev. W. S. 
Symonps tO give some account of the geologic features of the 
surrounding country. The Malverns and May Hill were hidden 
in the summer haze; Mr. Symonps directed attention to their 
ancient geologic history, and told his hearers how their old 
stratified gneissic beds claim a like remote antiquity with the 
Laurentian rocks of America and the Hebrides, and how the 
volcanic masses which interlie the stratified rocks must have 
been erupted untold ages ago, when these ancient strata were 
accumulating in the Laurentian seas—that May Hill may be 
regarded as representing in its mass the whole of the Upper 
Silurian series of Murcutsoy, and that a tunnel through its 
centre would probably reveal a nucleus of the ancient gneiss 
and volcanic rocks of Malvern. To the north-east rose the 
wooded ridges which mark the strange valley, or rather series 
of valleys, which circle round Haughwood and Woolhope; 
while far beyond could be seen the Titterstone Clee, a great 
outlier of “ Old Red” rocks and Carboniferous deposits, which 
have been preserved from denudation by a volcanic outburst of 
jewstone or trap, an ancient lava, which has burst through 
Silurian, Old Red, and Carboniferous masses, and now furnishes 
the well-known Clee Hill road-stone. The Old Red Sandstone 
of Herefordshire was briefly described, and, turning westwards, 
Mr. Symonps pointed to the rim of the South Welsh coalfield, 
where it rises above the Usk, and told the history of the 
remarkable outlier of Pencerrig Calch, of the valley of the Usk, 
the “Old Red” masses of the Black Mountain, the Brecon 
Vans, the Scyrrid, and the Sugar-Loaf. He then spoke of the 
Wye caves and their wild inhabitants, the hyzna, the cave 
lion, and cave bear. He further called attention to the river 
gorge, the river masses of Carboniferous Limestone, and the 
river pebbles which were found in some of the caves nearly 
500 feet above the present river bed. Under the shade of the 
green trees of the forest Sir Jonn Mactan had provided a 
welcome luncheon, after partaking of which the Naturalists 
filled to overflowing the carriages sent to meet them, and the 
party trotted away merrily to the castle of St. Briavels. 
