ii. THE COTS WOLDS. 17 



The strata of the Cotswold Hills (see Diagram VI. on opposite 

 page) may be thus classed in succession downwards : 



Cornbrash. 



Forest marble group. 



Great oolite (Stonesfield slate at the base). 



Fuller's-earth group. 



Inferior oolite. 



Sand of Frocester Hill. 



Upper lias (followed in some places by rnarlstone and lower lias). 



The principal hills, or highest swellings of the hills, may be thus 

 enumerated, beginning in the south-west, and following nearly the 

 escarpment edge, for this is generally the highest part of the 

 district : 



ft. 



Birdlip Hill 964 



Leckhampton Hill 97 



Pewsdown, above Andover's Ford . . . . 840 

 Broadway Hill, highest point 1040 



Detached from the main chain are 



Cleeve Cloud 1084 



Bredon Hill 979 



Further to the east 



Stow-on -the- Wold . . . . . . . . 771 



Long Compton Hill . 786 



Epwell 742 



Edge Hill 718 



Turning our attention now to the great transverse hollow in 

 which runs the Upper Thames like a receiving drain, we remark 

 the subjacent stratum to be almost universally the thick Oxford 

 clay, which occasionally spreads out in small detached patches over 

 the cornbrash, the uppermost bed of the Cotswold oolites. These 

 patches are monuments of the former over-extension of the clay, 

 and measures in some degree of the great waste which has happened 

 in the Thames valley. This waste is for the most part of ancient 

 date ; for, resting on the surface of the Oxford clay, are broad tracts 

 of calcareous gravel brought down by the Cotswold streams, and 

 deposited in the hollow previously made. In these grayels fresh- 



c 



