486 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [May 2, 



In order to present these phsenomena in a more concise form, a 

 diagram (fig. 6) is annexed, by which it will be observed that the 

 great majority of the platforms have a northerly bearing. The out- 



Fig. 6. — Diagram of the Bear- 

 ings of the Marlstone Plat- 

 forms. 



Fig. 7. — Diagram of the Direc- 

 tions and Numerical Propor- 

 tion of the Faults. 



Vi/3^ 



>2E 



line of the former coast has of course, in some measure, modified 

 these directions ; occasionally, perhaps, counteracting the tendency 

 of the platforms to project northwards, especially along the Eastern 

 flank. It is sufficiently evident, however, that there has been a 

 greater tendency to the formation of platforms pointing northward 

 and westward, than to their production in other directions. Taking 

 this evidence in conjunction with the facts, that where a barrier 

 occurs the strata immediately south of it have been less denuded 

 than where there is none, and that along the escarpment the Oolitic 

 as well as Marlstone headlands all point more or less towards the 

 north, the evidence appears conclusive that the ancient sea has acted 

 vdth greater energy from that direction ; and when it is recollected 

 that at the period in question it extended from the Bristol Channel 

 to the estuaries of the Mersey and Dee*, the swell of an ancient 

 Atlantic might have been supposed to have acted with greatest effect 

 against the Cotteswold country from the south-west, had it not been 

 surpassed by a more powerful aqueous agency from an opposite 

 direction ; nor does it clearly appear why the action in the one case 

 should be so much greater than in the other, unless we suppose the 

 greater prevalence and force of northerly winds at that period. The 

 supposition also gains strength by analogy with the present ; for 

 north and west winds are those which now blow strongest over the 

 districts surrounding the Cotteswold Hills. 



Faults. — The lines of dislocation may be arranged under two 

 systems ; the first, those which point north and south ; the second, 

 those the directions of which are east and west. Of the second, 



* Sir R. I. Murchison was the first to point out that the sea extended from the 

 Cotteswolds on the east, to May Hill and the Malverns on the west ; turning 

 Wales into an island. To him also is due the term " Ancient Straits of Malvern." 



