TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 587 
name runs north and south, and may be followed almost continuously from 
Worcestershire to Bristol. It presents evidence of having been a line of weakness 
through a large part of the world’s history, as shown by Professor Groom, and of 
having yielded repeatedly to earth-stresses; but there is seldom difficulty in dis- 
tinguishing the movements which were effected during the period under considera- 
tion. For example, near and south of Abberley the Coal Measures are clearly 
involved in a thrust from the east, which was sufficiently energetic to turn over a 
great belt of Old Red Sandstone and other rocks beyond verticality for some miles. 
Further south, again, among repeated proofs of the ridging up of the old axis in 
several pre-Carboniferous periods, we find evidence of post-Carboniferous elevation 
along the same general line. Throughout this same region there has been also 
post-Triassic dislocation, which, however, is on a comparatively small scale. That 
the Carboniferous rocks were greatly disturbed before the Trias was laid down is 
proved by the great unconformity between the two formations. 
The Malvernian axis continues southwards by Newent, but perhaps with 
diminishing intensity, On its west side a broad syncline rolls in the tract of 
Jarboniferous rocks which underlies the Forest of Dean. The syncline trends 
north and south, and is shown to be of pre-Triassic age by the fact that the 
Triassic strata on the banks of the Severn do not share in the synclinal structure. 
Here we must leave the Malvernian axis for the present. 
The fourth disturbance ranges along the Lickey Hills, which, diminutive as 
they are, tell a story of great geological significance. They range in a south- 
south-easterly direction, and in the fact that they are formed of extremely ancient 
rocks furnish evidence of immense upheaval. From the relations of these ancient 
formations to one another we may gather also that the upheaval was due to a 
recurrence of movement along the same axis at more than one geological date, but 
at the same time we find no difficulty in distinguishing that part of the movement 
which took place between Carboniferous and Triassic times, for the Coal Measures 
are tilted up on end along the flanks of the axis, while the Trias passes hori- 
zontally over all the tilted rocks. A clue to the southward extension of the axis 
under the Secondary rocks is furnished by some faulting as far as Redditch, here 
also there having been a renewal of movement on a small scale in post-Triassic 
times. 
The fifth disturbance runs through Warwickshire and includes the low ridge of 
ancient rocks which ranges through Atherstone and Nuneaton in a south-easterly 
direction. About fifteen miles to the north-east Archean rocks form the parallel 
ridge or series of ridges of Charnwood Forest, while the intervening space 1s over- 
spread by Trias, resting partly on Carboniferous and partly on older strata. The 
structure of the Carboniferous and older strata is dominated by what is known as 
the Charnian movement, which includes disturbances of several ages ranging in a 
south-easterly direction. That part of the movement which was post-Carboniferous 
is identifiable by the fact that Coal Measures are tilted on either side of the ridges 
of old rocks. They once overspread both ridges, but were removed by denudation 
as a consequence of upheaval before the Trias was deposited. It has been found 
also in working the coal, as I am informed by Mr. Strangways, that there are large 
faults having the south-eastward or Charnian direction which shift the Coal 
Measures, but do not break through the overlying Trias, The evidence, therefore, of 
a great Charnian movement having taken place during the period under considera- 
tion is conclusive. The disturbance ranges as a whole in the direction of 
Be auton, where in fact borings have reached the Charnwood rocks at no great 
epth. 
The five great disturbances which I have briefly indicated tend to converge 
northwards, but their exact connection with the Pennine axisis not known. What 
may be only a part of that axis trends for Charnwood through a tract of Lower 
Carboniferous rocks exposed at Melbourne, between the Yorkshire and Leicester- 
shire Coalfields, but the Triassic channel I have already mentioned intervenes, 
and the structure of the rocks underlying the red marl is unknown. The channel 
itself appears to be of Triassic age, for not only is the depth of mar! in it suggestive 
of its haying been a strait in the Triassic waters but its northern margin has been 
