THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 145 



MIDLAND UNION OF NATUEAL HISTOEY SOCIETIES. 

 CHELTENHAM MEETING, JUNE 16, 1881.* 



THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



THE PHYSIOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OP THE COUNTRY AROUND 

 CHELTENHAM. 



BY THOMAS WRIGHT, M.D., F.R.S., ETC. 



It affords me very great pleasure to welcome the Midland Union of 

 Natural History Societies to Cheltenham, seeing that it forms such a 

 capital centre for the study of the different themes which engage the 

 attention of its members. So, therefore, instead of bringing before 

 you again the objects of the Union and the means by which they are 

 attempted to be attained, as has been so exhaustively done by 

 former Presidents, I intend to devote the hour at my disposal 

 in pointing out to you some of the subjects which are best illustrated 

 in strict relation to our pursuits in the locality in which we are on this 

 fourth anniversary of the Union assembled ; and as this is more 

 especially a Geological meeting, the first Darwin Medal of the Union 

 for the best essay indicating original research on a Geological subject 

 being about to be awarded, I shall direct your attention to the 

 Physiography and Geology of the country around Cheltenham. 



Taking up a position on any part of the high ground around the 

 town, and casting our eyes towards the grand landscape stretched out 

 before us, we are first struck with the wide and far-reaching valley 

 which forms the second distance of the picture and occupies the centre 

 of the scene, bounded on its eastern and western limits by chains of 

 hills of surpassing beauty, varying, however, as regards age, altitude, 

 and physical structure. 



Looking westwards we see the Malvern Hills trending north and 

 south, and showing their graceful angular line of beauty against the 

 western sky. These hills of moderate elevation present, nevertheless, 

 an admirable miniature model of a mountain chain, and teach us very 

 plainly how such surface elevations of the earth's surface have been 

 formed. The eruptive rock constituting the axis of the chain is 

 Syenite, almost as beautiful in its physical structure as this specimen 

 from the quarries of Syene now in my hand. The graceful angles of 

 the ridge, so characteristic of the weathering of granitic masses, give 

 a most picturesque feature to the outline of the Malverns, and form a 

 physical contrast to the rounded summits of the sedimentary rocks 

 of Palaeozoic and Mesozoic age in the midst of which they stand. 



The Malvern Hills are about eight miles in length and from half- 

 a-mile to a mile in breadth, and as the chain undulates north and south 

 we count many summits, about eight, of various heights. Commencing at 

 the north end and proceeding towards the south we have, first, 

 the North Hill, 1,3(56 feet above the level of the sea; the Worcester- 



*The Council's Report, and an account of the business transacted, will appear 

 in the " Midland Naturalist " tor August — Eds. M. N. 



