Mr. Horner (5« //6(? Mineralogy of ibc Malvern Hills. -317 



IN the account which I have now laid before the Society, of the 

 physical structure of this interesting range of hills, I have, I fear, 

 executed the task I have undertaken in a very imperfect manner ; 

 but I have endeavoured to avoid all theoretical speculations, and 

 have confined myself as much as possible to a description of the 

 facts as they present themselves. Before concluding however, I shall 

 take the liberty of offering a few remarks on the phenomena I have 

 described, and of examining by what theory they may, in m.y 

 opinion, be most satisfactorily accounted for. 



With the exception of the small bed of red sandstone on the 

 eastern side of the Worcestershire Beacon § 29, all the unstratified 

 rocks seem to belong to the primitive class of the Wernerian system, 

 and in general, accord very much with the account given by Mr. 

 Jameson in his Geognosy of the third or newest granite formation. 

 The structure of the granite is very irregular, it is generally of a red 

 colour, and it is found in veins that probably shoot from a great 

 body of rock : it is frequently traversed by veins of quartz, and is 

 not stratified. The rocks in which hornblende exists correspond 

 with some of the varieties of primitive trap, and of sienite, as de- 

 scribed in the same work. 



The stratified rocks on the western side, are probably of very 

 early formation, as the organic remains that are found in them are 

 such as only Occur in the oldest of the secondary rocks. The cha- 

 racters of the limestone quite agree with those^of the transition lime- 

 stone of Werner ; and although the argillaceous rock does not exactly 

 correspond with any of the transition rocks enumerated by Mr. 

 Jameson ; yet as the same organic remains are found in it, as in the 

 limestone, and as it occurs in some places on both sides of the lime- 

 stone-strata, in conformable stratification, it is very probable that 

 both belong to the same class, The argillaceous rock may perhaps 



