338 Rev. Mr. Conybeare onthe Malvern Hills. [Nov. 
mon to Ragstone Hill. In this both the nodules and the cement~ 
ing mass are of a dark and apparently homogeneous trap,* not 
much unlike that through which the passage of the Wych is cut. 
This rock, especially the imbedding paste, seems to decompose 
with great readiness into a greasy clay,} a character often 
observable in the less crystalline and obscurer forms of green- 
stone. The quarry from whence my specimens were obtained 
exhibited no traces of stratification. Both these conglomerates 
occasionally contained nodules of quartz. Whether they are to 
be considered as contemporaneous with, or posterior to, the 
formation of the great syenitic mass with which they are con- 
nected, I cannot pretend even to conjecture. . Appearances 
certainly occur which might countenance the belief that there 
has been, to some extent at least, a second infiltration or injec- 
tion of matter identical with one or other of the constituents of 
the original rock. Thus in one spot I found a vein of white 
felspar containing angular fragments of dark green trap. Some 
other of the felspar veins would, perhaps, be held to be true 
veins, and the dyke observed by Mr. W. Phillips seems to have 
every pretension to the character of a true dyke. 
At the north or rather north-west extremity of Ragstone Hill 
the greywacke appears in force, and assumes a much more cha- 
racteristic aspect than in those points where it alternates with 
the transition lime. Its slaty variety here occurs as a very dark 
(nearly black) shale, the appearance of which joined with the 
resemblance which its compact form bears to some of the coal 
measures, has tempted some of the neighbouring cottagers to 
make trial for coal. This end of the Hill would, perhaps, be 
the best spot for studying the character of the greywacke, and 
its relation to the syenite. I have to regret that neither my time 
nor my health, would permit my accurately examining, or paying 
it a second visit.t 
At the old shaft, known as Williams’ Mine, I found no trace 
of metal, and was disposed to acquiesce in the general belief 
that the adventurers had been misled by the pseudo-metallic 
aspect of the Cat Dirt (disintegrating mica), until a lady who 
had examined the deads with greater care, informed me, and I 
afterwards observed myself, that some few portions of the rock 
contained very minute specks of yellow copper and patches con- 
sisting of, or at least coloured by, its carbonate. ‘They were of 
very rare occurrence, and the whole quantity which I saw could 
not have exceeded a few grains. They who know the sanguine 
temper of miners will, however, understand that these must have 
* See Bouse, p. 130, for an analogous fact in dolerite (augite rock). On the Con- 
nexion of trap and syenite, see Dr. Macculloch on the Island of Rum. 
t+ Is it not this which has been termed by Mr. Horner and Mr. W. Phillips stea- 
tite ? é 
+ Hand specimens ave met with in which it seems difficult to ascertain whether they 
belong to the trap or the greywacke formation. Is it possible that they may graduate 
into each other ? 
