VOL. XV.(1) THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS 9 
moment, buried beneath a vast thickness of Palzeozoic 
and Secondary strata, there probably repose the denuded 
stumps of ancient cones, and the outspread products 
of their explosive activity. 
These volcanic rocks are amongst the oldest in the 
British Isles, perhaps in the whole world. They are far 
older than the Cambrian epoch, for in Shropshire the 
lowest Cambrian strata rest upon them with a great 
discordance. But they are younger than the granitic 
and gneissic rocks of the Malvernian epoch, which near 
Shrewsbury yield rounded fragments to conglomerates 
interbedded with Uriconian tuffs and lavas. In the 
Gloucester area we have no evidence that in the Uriconian 
age any Malvernian rocks had been raised above the sea, 
so that we may conjecture, with some probability, that the 
Uriconian volcanoes were themselves the first land that 
emerged from the waves. 
The Uriconian rocks of Malvern appear at the great 
fault that runs due north from the Bristol coalfield into 
Shropshire. They are not again seen in place on this 
line until we reach Lilleshall, near Newport (Salop); but 
the Permian strata of the Abberley Hills contain massive 
breccias made up of large angular fragments of typical 
Uriconian lava, and we may safely infer that in the 
Permian period Uriconian rocks were exposed in that 
area. Also at the southern end of the Malvern Hills, near 
Hafield and Bromesberrow, we have breccias commonly 
referred to the Permian, and these enclose fragments of 
Uriconian rocks. 
Coming now to the Salopian area, we commence with 
the Uriconian of Lilleshall. It forms a rocky ridge of hard 
flinty volcanic mud, which 25 years ago struck me by its 
resemblance to the prevailing type at Little Malvern, and 
Professor Bonney confirmed this by the microscope. At 
this locality the Malvern fault intersects the great 
