Vol. 55.] GEOLOGICAL STKTTCTFRE OF THE SOUTHERN MALVEENS. 129" 



8. The Geological Structure of the Southern Malverns, and of 

 the Adjacent District to the West. By Prof. T. T. Groom, 

 K.A., D.Sc, F.G.S. (Read December 7th, 1898.) 



[Plates XIII-XV.] 



Contents. 



Page 



I. Historical Summary 129 



II. General Structure of the Area 130 



III. The Malvern Range 131 



(1) Raggedstone Hill. 



(2) Midsummer and Hollybush Hills. 



(3) The Central Depressions in tbe Hills of the Southern Part of 



the Eange. 



(4) The Hollybush Pass. 



(5) The Gullet Pass. 



(6) Chase End Hill. 



(7) Confirmatory Evidence from the more Northerly Portions of 



the Range. 



(8) Theoretical Explanation of the Structure of the Southern 



Portion of the Malvern Range. 



IV. The Western Tract 157 



(1) The District of White-leaved Oak, etc. 



(2) The District around Fowlet Farm. 



(3) The District around Bronsil. 



V. The May Hill Sandstone Escarpment 166 



I. Historical Summary. 



Easily accessible, situated in a charmingly picturesque country, and 

 marking some of the most interesting phases in the evolution of 

 the British Isles, the Malvern Hills have now for nearly 80 years 

 formed the subject of geological investigations, and have ever yielded 

 new facts of interest and importance. 



Leonard Horner ^ described the Malverns as a granitic mass in- 

 truded into the associated strata. Murchison ^ regarded the chain 

 as essentially of igneous origin, though including ' Silurian ' beds 

 altered by the intrusion. Phillips, in his masterly work on the 

 district,^ maintained that the Lower Palaeozoic strata associated 

 with the range had been deposited against the crystalline rocks. 

 Holl,* regarding the range as probably composed of pre-Cambrian 

 metamorphosed sedimentary and igneous rocks, described the Cam- 

 brian and Silurian beds as overlapping the metamorphic series. 



Mr. Eutley ' considers that the gneissic and schistose rocks of the 

 Malverns are a series of altered tuffs, grits, sandstones, and volcanic 



' Trans. Geol. Soc. ser. 1, vol. i (1811) p. 281. 



2 ' The Silurian System,' 1839, pp. 417 etseqq. ; ' Siluria,' 1854, pp. 92 e^ seqq. 



^ Mag. & Journ. of Sci. vol. xxi (1842) ; Mem. Geol. Surv. vol. ii (1848) pt. i, 

 pp. 66 et seqq. & pp. 125-126. 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxi (1865) pp. 89, 92, 97 et seqq, 



5 Ibid. vol. xliii (1887) p. 508. 

 Q.J.G. S. JSV218. K 



