17 



through transversely by many cracks and fissures, some of which 

 have been the scene of great dislocation, and it is shown, that 

 through such rents in the strata, the principal rivers escape from 

 the mountains of Wales into the lower counties of England, viz., the 

 Severn, the Onny, the Teme, the Lug, the Wye, &c. 



On the eastern side of the trough of old red sandstone of Here- 

 fordshire, the mean direction of the strata, as determined by the 

 outline of the trap and sienitic ridges of Abberley and Malvern, 

 is from north to south. But there are many aberrations from 

 that direction, and innumerable local disturbances, curvatures and 

 faults. Thus, for example, the superior grauwacke formations strike 

 south-south-east from Knightwick bridge upon the Teme for a di- 

 stance of six miles, until they are met by the sienitic ridge of the 

 Malvern running due north and south. The result of this contact 

 is, that the sedimentary deposits are cut out, deflected from their 

 course, and their direction accommodated to the western sides and 

 promontories of the intrusive rock. In the neighbourhood of East- 

 nor Park three of the grauwacke formations have the north-east 

 and south-westerly strike so persistent in Salop and Wales ; but 

 this direction is merely local, being only maintained in a length of 

 about 2| miles, for the Ledbury ridge, which terminates this group, 

 is seen to strike due south at its apex near Clencher's Mill. The 

 discrepancy is still greater between the strike of the major axis of 

 the Woolhope Valley extending to Flaxley in Gloucestershire (a 

 distance of about 18 miles), and that of Shucknell Hill, which al- 

 though only two miles distant from the northern end of the Wool- 

 hope Valley, and composed of the same rocks, has a direction from 

 south-west to north-east, and at right angles to the former, which 

 runs from north-west to south-east. The strike of the strata of 

 Shucknell Hill is parallel to the line of bearing of the adjoining trap 

 rocks of Bartestree. 



Notwithstanding the numerous data explanatory of these divergen- 

 cies in the direction of the strata of the same age on the east side 

 of Herefordshire, and in other parts an occasional coincidence of 

 parallelism between the strike of formations of very different age, 

 the author declines for the present to enter upon the general 

 theoretical question put forth by M. Elie de Beaumont, conceiving 

 that the scale upon which he has observed may by some geologists 

 not be considered sufficiently expansive to enable him fairly to discuss 

 the merits of that theory. It might also be contended that the phe- 

 nomena apparent on the eastern side of Herefordshire have been sim- 

 ply the offsets of those stupendous forces to which the mountain 

 chains of Wales owe their origin, and that such small exceptions 

 could not vitiate a train of reasoning deduced from the phenomena 

 observed throughout a whole mountainous region. 



Intending to pursue this inquiry, he restricts himself, on this oc- 

 casion, to the statementof the fact, that the carboniferous limestone 

 and coal-measures near Wellington, and in the Titterstone Clee 

 Hills where these deposits are penetrated by basalt, have been 

 thrown up into the same north-east and south-west direction as 



