220 PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 



Second, South America and Africa are supposed to have 

 been joined together as a great continent ; North America 

 stretches over beyond Iceland, but is separated from the 

 southern continent by a comparativelv narrow sea, where- 

 fore the Atlantic, as an ocean, is of comparatively late 

 geological date. Third, Europe is mostly under the sea : 

 it is the area of an archipelago whereof Wales, Brittany 

 and Ireland joined together formed a principal island.* 

 Of this island the range of the Malverns, May Hill, and 

 so forth formed the eastern coast line ; and this ancient 

 Jurassic coast line can be observed at many places in our 

 district with often a great stratal unconformity. 



Further about the Malverns : the noticeable serrated 

 edge and the dry valleys leading down from the hill tops 

 — some of them, as for instance that at the Holly Bush, 

 very conspicuous on the route taken — are due to denuda- 

 tion ; but it is a denudation largely accomplished at a 

 time when the Jurassic strata were level with or even 

 above the ])resent height of the Malverns, when such 

 strata were contiguous to the older rocks, just as is the 

 case with the Mendips to-day, and when the drainage 

 passed equally over newer and older strata, before the 

 existence of the Severn Valley. 



Our route was continued to Ledbury. A noticeable 

 point in the scenery of that district is the valley excava- 

 tion. Taking into, consideration the full width across 

 from the highest ground on the one side to the highest 

 ground on the other side of such a valley as that of the 

 Leadon, two points become of interest — the height at 

 which the river must once have flowed, the width and 

 depth of the valley it has excavated. 



There is a quaint legend attached to Ledbury. It has 

 a geological origin, for it relates to certain hollows excavated 



* Tlie map is given 1)V Emilc Hang in bis article, ' Jurassique,' in "La Grande 

 Encyclopedie," Paris, iSc).).. p. 325, 



