SEDGWICK ON THE MAY HILL SANDSTONE. 227 



up from beneath the purple sandstones and conglomerates of Eastnor 

 Park (No. 4). 



So far as our own evidence goes, we are not, however, driven to this 

 or any other new hypothesis. We believe the beds of the section to 

 belong to one group (No. 5), (exactly as Professor Phillips interprets 

 them,) and that they do represent the shelly sandstones, &c. which 

 underlie the "Woolhope beds of May Hill. About the upper beds 

 of the section there seems to be no doubt. The lower beds mav 

 contain a very few species of fossils, generally considered charac- 

 teristic of the Caradoc sandstone ; but no such species fell under our 

 notice ; nor do they appear to exist in the Malvern drawers of the 

 Museum of Economic Geology. 



The following is our list of fossils from the inverted beds on the 

 N.E. flank of the Worcestershire Beacon: — 



Petraia (unnamed, same as at May Orthis biloba, W. 



Hill). elegantula, W. 



Favosites multipora, W. Strophomena pecten, W. 



Palceopora petaliformis, W. Spirigerina reticularis, \V. 



Halysites catenulatus,^ . marginalis, W. {Terebratula im- 



Tentaculites ornaius, W. hricata, Sil. Syst.) 



Pentamerus linguiferus, W. (inclu- Spirifera cyrtcena, W. 



ding P. undatus). Hemithyris lacunosa, W, 

 lens (same as at May Hill). 



" As in the former lists, the species known in other undoubted 

 Wenlock localities are marked W. On referring to Mr. Salter for 

 information on the Orthis testudinaria, Orthis jlahellidmn, and Tri- 

 rMcleus Caractaci — good Caradoc or Bala types quoted from this 

 spot in the ' Memoir of the Geological Survey,' p. 66, — he informs us 

 that there is no trace in the collections of the first nor last, and that 

 he doubts the existence of 0. JlabeUulum, referring the single valve 

 which they have, like it, to the O. virgata, — the same variety as found 

 at May Hill. This locality fixes the species, in our mind, for the 

 shell found at May Hill is so like O.Jlabellulum, that it was described 

 by that excellent authority Mr. Davidson as . flabelluhmi from the 

 Wenlock limestone of Walsal ; but subsequently distinguished as a 

 perfectly distinct species by him and M. de Verneuil under the name 

 O. Davidsoni, so that the species is an exclusively Wenlock one." 

 (Prof. M'Coy.) 



Hence we conclude that the sandstones of the Malverns, like those 

 of May Hill, are not true Caradoc, but belong to an intermediate 

 group, which, in the words of Professor Philhps, " were deposited in 

 an ocean filled with the life of the Wenlock period." I have thought 

 it better to define these groups by the name May Hill sandstones 

 rather than Malvern sandstones ; because the true base of the latter 

 may be regarded as in some degree doubtful ; and still more, be- 

 cause of the Black shales (No. 2), and the Tlollybush sandstone 

 (No. 1), which appear to form the base of the whole Malvern series ; 

 and for reasons above stated, I would place the two last-named groups 

 (Nos. ] and 2), 'provisionally, as true Caradoc groups, till we have 

 fuller information rcspccthig their fossils. 



