282 Messrs. Buckland's and Conybeare's Observations on the 



south-eastern slope of grey-wacke and grey-wacke slate, and extending from 

 Church-Stretton to the Wrekin. 



The upper regions of the formation of transition limestone, which is perhaps 

 the most recent member of the transition series of Werner, consist of shale 

 alternating with extensive beds of stratified limestone. The lowest of the 

 calcareous strata are thin, and alternate with shale. Upon these repose thicker 

 strata of more compact limestone, often of a dull-blue colour, and sometimes 

 having a tendency to lie in rubbly knotted masses, rather than in flat con- 

 tinuous slabs. Occasionally the limestone is so charged with sand, as to pass 

 into calcareous sandy flag-stone. The beds are often dolomitic, which is indi- 

 cated by the straw-yellow or dark-pink colour, and by the sandy or glimmering 

 aspect of the rock. This happens in the western escarpment of Bryerry-hill 

 on the side of Aston Ingham, to the south-west of Newent. The transition 

 limestone abounds with organic remains, viz : trilobites, orthoceratites, and 

 the catenarian and other corals, which agree precisely with those of the lime- 

 stones of Malvern, Dudley, and Wenlock-edge. 



The limestone accompanies the shale irregularly in the range that extends 

 from Flaxley to the Marcle-hills and Stoke Edith, This range widens in its 

 progress northward. Its southern apex at Plaxley is contracted in breadth 

 to a few hundred yards ; near Hereford it is about 5 miles broad. Its total 

 length from south to north is nearly 20 miles. Beyond its northern extremity 

 at the distance of more than a mile, we find the insulated hill called Shuck- 

 nell-hill, an outlying mass of transition limestone, dipping very rapidly and 

 outwards on every side, conformably to the slope of the hill, beneath old 

 red sandstone. The Marcle-hills are almost continuous with the similar rano-e 

 of transition limestone, which reposes on the western flank of the Malvern 

 Hills, and extends northwards to Abberley ; since the ranges are separated 

 only by the vale of Ledbury, which is 6 miles broad, and consists of old red 

 sandstone. 



The oldest rocks which the Marcle range touches in its progress south- 

 wards, are the grey-wacke strata of May-hill ; on approaching the northern 

 extremity of which it bifurcates, near the village of Aston Ingham. Around 

 both sides of May-hill, the strata of shale and limestone, always highly in- 

 clined and sometimes perpendicular, form a continuous mantle, until their 

 western skirt, having passed beyond the grey-wacke, becomes depressed at 

 the village of Flaxley, below the level of the newer red sandstone, and is 

 buried beneath it. Overlying strata of newer red sandstone, close over the 

 eastern skirt at the village of Huntley, and for a short space come into contact 

 with the grey-wacke itself. It is probable, that beneath this sandstone, the 



