II. 



THE HALVE RN HILLS. 13 



Placed in the order of superposition, the rocks of the Malvern 

 Hills and the country adjoining stand as under : 



r Red marls. 



1 Red and white sandstone. 



"Permian conglomerate. 



Coal measures. 



Old red sandstone, marls, and cornstones. 



Upper Silurian strata. 



Lower Silurian strata. 

 . Cambrian strata. 

 / Gneissic series of the Malvern Hills, with veins of granite, diorite, 



Palaeozoic 



Metamorphic -^ 



I &c. 



The Malvern Hills, in passing from south to north, rise to the 

 following heights : 



ft. 



Key's End Hill . . . .617 

 Raggedstone Hill . . . .836 

 Midsummer Hill . . . '-958 

 Swinyard Hill . . . .898 

 Hereford Beacon . .1118 



ft. 



North of Wind's Point . . .858 

 Above Malvern Wells . . . 1 1 78 

 North of the Wych . . .902 

 Worcester Beacon . . . 1396 

 North Hill . . . . . 1318 



Standing on the commanding heights of the Malvern Beacons, 

 the natural rampart of Wales, crowned with the war-camps of a 

 long-resisting people, we see this ancient ridge furrowed on its 

 eastern slope by several hollows, running straight to the plain 

 where the ridge is very narrow, but admitting of some winding 

 and division where it is wide. Down these hollows the waste of 

 the surface has been drifted to the lower ground through a long 

 course of time, and may be observed in considerable quantity to 

 the eastward, lying superficially to the depth of a foot or a yard, 

 sometimes mixed with drifted gravel from localities farther north, 

 or with other accumulations of very limited origin derived from 

 the adjoining country. 



The Vale of Severn, by these and other proofs, is shown to have 

 had its present general aspect in periods as far removed as the date 

 when the mammoth, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus were roaming 

 about the surface of Britain. Remains of these animals occur in 

 the gravel deposits, and in finer sediments on the course of the now 



