Vol. 55.] GEOLOGICAL STRUCTIJEE OF THE SOUTHERX MAL VEENS. 153 



Raggedstone Hill, suggests that it has on the whole a distinct 

 easterly dip, and therefore passes underneath the gneissic rocks of 

 the eastern side of the hill. Further, it will he shown on a future 

 occasion that, in the more northerly portion of the range, the 

 eastern fault bounding similar included Silurian strips is either 

 vertical, or has a very marked hade towards the east. 



There is, then, evidence to show that the gneissic rocks on the 

 eastern side have been thrust up vertically, or at an angle, over 

 the more westerly Cambrian and Silurian rocks. This hypothesis 

 necessitates, further, the presence of folds sufficiently deep to bring 

 the Palaeozoic strata down to the level at which they are found. 

 I have endeavoured to represent this view in the entirely diagram- 

 matic figure facing this page. We must suppose that a deep fold 

 of Cambrian and Silurian rocks, including on the one hand the 

 HoUybush Conglomerate, and on the other beds of the May Hill 

 Series, became included in the gneissic complex, the middle limbs 

 being drawn out by the great tension into a series of shreds, or in 

 places entirely obliterated. 



A fact worthy of note in this connexion is that, though the 

 Hollybush Conglomerate and Sandstone, and the May Hill Sand- 

 stone are represented in this squeezed and dislocated zone, the 

 Malvern Shales, the position of which is intermediate between the 

 two last-mentioned formations, appear to be entirely unrepresented. 

 There is, as I shall endeavour to sliow later, reason to believe that 

 these beds, like the other Cambrian and the Silurian strata, formerly 

 passed over the range, and I would suggest that during the intense 

 folding and crushing which took place these softer beds were 

 completely squeezed out, in the manner indicated in fig. 18.^ The 

 enormous crushing which some of the beds have undergone is shown 

 by the greatly shattered and brecciated condition of the pieces 

 of Hollybush Conglomerate found in the hollows at the southern 

 ends of Midsummer and Raggedstone Hills respectively. Very 

 significant in connexion with these folds and thrust-planes are 

 the definite relations which obtain, between the strike and dip of 

 the schists of Raggedstone Hill and the course of the axial dislo- 

 cation as shown in the map (PI. XIII). The schists nearly every- 

 where on the eastern side of the hill dip away from the line, their 

 strike curving round with a fair amount of regularity ; the 

 schistose rocks on the western side of the hill show a similar but 

 less marked relation, the folia dipping towards the axial line in 

 this case. It can hardly be doubted that the production of the 

 schistosity and that of the zone of dislocation are closely related. 



Eurther evidence tending in the same direction is seen in the 

 western slopes of Raggedstone Hill. It has already been pointed 

 out (p. 137) that there is commonly a distinct relation between 

 the dip and strike of the Cambrian rocks and of the schists, on 

 the one hand, and that of the fault-plane separating them on the 



^ I do not, however, feel perfectly satisfied with this explanation, for some 

 traces of the igneous rocks abundant in parts of the shale series might be 

 expected to occur. Future research may remove this difficulty. 



