HOLL- — MALVEEjV HILLS. 



89 



sandstones are seen resting against the edges of highly inclined 

 gneissic and schistose beds, and dipping in an opposite direction. 

 The lowest strata consist of sandy shales with worm-tracks *. Above 

 these is a bed of dark-purple or purplish -black sandstone, about 3 or 

 4 feet in thickness, and, still higher up, a bed of light-blue calcareous 

 sandstone, about 6 or 8 feet in thickness, divided in the middle by a 

 narrow band of hard pale-bluish limestone. This is followed by 

 some more or less thinly laminated micaceous sandstone, which 

 graduates upwards into massive beds of an olive-green colour. 



These beds appear to come in below the horizon of the lava, and, 

 although here resting upon the crystalline rocks, are evidently above 

 the lower beds seen at the northern extremity of the hill, in the 

 Hollybush Pass, which they cover up by overlap. 



These sandstones have been estimated by Prof. Phillips f to have a 

 thickness of 600 feet on the turnpike-road from Eastnor to Tewkes- 

 bury ; but in the Valley of the White-leaved Oak, less than three- 

 quarters of a mile to the south, their thickness is little more than 

 200 feet, owing to overlap of the overlying black shales. 



The fossils of the sandstones, with the exception of worm-tracks, 

 are rare, and for the most part small. The following are all that 

 are at present known. 



Seolithus. 



Trachyderma antiquissima, Salt. 

 Serpulites fistula, spec. nov. 

 Lingula squamosa, spec. nov. 

 Lingula, sp. 



Obolella Phillipsii, spec. nov. 

 Obolclla, sp. 

 Obolella, sp. 

 Small bivalve shell. 



2. The Black Shales. — The sandstones just described are overlain 

 unconformably by black and pale-greenish shales, which have a 



Fig. 3. — Section across the northern extremity of Goal Hill. 



E. W. 



1 2 3 4 56789 



1. Shale. ft. in. 



2. Volcanic grit 2 10 



3. Grey indurated shale 1 2 



4. Volcanic grit 1 8 



5. Shale 4 



6. Slightly calcareous felspathic ash 7 



7. Light-brown shale 1 



8. Sliglitly calcareous lava 8 



9. Dark-greyish felspathico-avigitic lava 35 



The beds dip a little south of west at an angle of 20 to 25 degrees. 



^' In the foot-note to page 75, allusion is made to the opinion at one time 

 entertained that these sandstones showed signs of metamorphism at their line 

 of junction with the crystalline rocks. It does not appear, however, that Pro- 

 fessor Phillips himself took this view, and it is now clearly ascertained that they 

 are not so. Those portions of the sandstones which are in immediate contact 

 with the lava-beds are, however, moi'e or less altered. 



t Op. cit. p. 51. 



