i68 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1913 



the two regions. In the Cotteswold area the waterparting is 

 not far removed from a direct N.E-S.W. hne. In the Birming- 

 ham area it has the appearance of staggering across the surface 

 of the country in a most irregular and capricious manner, 

 first from N.W. to S.E., then from north to south, and finally 

 irregularly eastward. But this contrast in the behaviour 

 of the waterparting is merely a consequence of the striking 

 contrast of the two areas, not only in their geological structure 

 but also in their geological history. The structure of the 

 Cheltenham area is one of great geological simphcity. From 

 the long north and south line of the Malvern Hills there 

 follow one after another the successive formations in unbroken 

 order, the great sheets all tilted gently south-eastward, all 

 beautifully dissected by the ancient rains and rivers, but so 

 deeply eroded to the north-east that their widest members 

 have long since been levelled to form the broad spreading 

 plain of the Lower Severn, while the hard hmestone forma- 

 tions to the south-east still stand stubbornly resistant of the 

 elements, and their north-eastern edges rise tier after tier in 

 the beautiful scarps of the Cottes wolds. 



But matters are wholly different within the hmits of the 

 Birmingham area. There all the newer limestone formations 

 with their characteristic N.E. strike, so conspicuous in the 

 Cheltenham area, have long since been wholly swept off, 

 leaving not a wreck behind. Only one of the level or but 

 gently inchned Mesozoic systems is left to us. That system 

 is the Trias, with its lower member the Bunter, and its newer 

 and softer member, the Keuper Marl. Not long ago, geo- 

 logically speaking, the Trias overspread the whole of the 

 Birmingham area in one vast sheet, almost Uke a mighty 

 red rock sea. Where the Keuper Marl remains to us, there 

 we have our broad rolling plains like the picturesque Arden 

 country and the broad levels of Worcester and Stafford, and 

 over these softest plains our rivers, the Trent and its branches, 

 the Tame and the Penk, the Lower Severn, and its main 

 tributary, the Avon, take their gently descending way. 



But the very heart of the Birmingham country is of a 

 very different constitution and structure. It consists of a 



