80 PllOCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAl SOCIETY. 



7. North of the Wych. — Beyond the narrow cutting through, the 

 hills known as the Wych the intrusions of trap-rock hecomo more 

 numerous. The rocks generally assume a more massive character, 

 owing to the greater prevalence of granitoid rock and of coarse- 

 grained diorite*, and the bedding is for the most part obliterated. 

 The strike can then be inferred only by observing the manner in 

 which these more massive beds occur, lying in narrow belts in the 

 plane of other more distinctly stratified rocks. In the diorite espe- 

 cially, the bedding is either obliterated or obscured by joints. The 

 granite is often gneissoid, and graduates laterally into true gneiss, 

 from which it is inseparable. 



Immediately north of the "Wych is some granitoid rock, crossed 

 obliquely from north-west to south-east by a trap-dyke. This gra- 

 nite has been quarried on the eastern side of the hills behind some 

 cottages, and also on the crest of the hills north of the dyke. It is 

 partly a coarse-grained rock, rich in red orthoclase-felspar, partly 

 of finer texture, and is generally deficient in mica. The trap-rock is 

 much jointed, and breaks readily into small rhomboidal fragments. 

 Near the surface it is partly decomposed, and, as is the case with 

 many of these traps, it presents in parts more or less of a brecciated 

 structure — a cu"cum stance which will be alluded to hereafter. Some 

 gneiss separates this be^.t of granite from a second precisely similar 

 one, beyond which, and immediately south of a place known as the 

 " Gold Pit," is a bed of mica with a little green felspar, and occa- 

 sionally some large crystals of imbedded hornblende. On the northern 

 edge of this bed is red granite, and beyond this a small trap- 

 dyke. A quarry below this part of the ridge on the west side, and 

 near to the road, shows a confused mixture of gneissoid rocks and 

 hornblendic schists, intersected in various directions by many small 

 quartzo-felspathic veins. 



Beyond the Gold Pit, and between it and the rounded eminence 

 midway to the summit of the Worcestershire Beacon, we pass suc- 

 cessively over the following belts of rock which cross the ridge in a 

 north-west and south-east direction : — 



Diorite about 



Felspar and mica rock, the latter dark-coloured „ 



Granitoid rocks „ 



Trap-dyke, which also appears on the Wych 



road, south of the turnpike-gate „ 



Diorite „ 



Gneissic rocks and mica-schist „ 



Diorite, coarse-grained and traversed by granite- 

 veins „ 



Gneiss and hornblende-schist, with many 



quartzo-felspathic veins , . . „ 



Gneiss and mica-schist ,, 



Gneiss and hornblende-schist „ 



* Basic hornblende and felspar rock. t The distances were only paced off. 



10 



yards f, 



23 



35 



20 



>5 



25 



35 



6 



53 



90 



35 



55 



55 



35 



55 



36 



55 



15 



55 



