4 The Naturalist in Siluria. 



dwelling is contiguous to its northern edge, — Penyard 

 Hill being but an out-lier of it, — and, tbongh my house 

 and grounds are on the Old Red, a cannon fired from the 

 front door, with sufficient elevation of aim, would fling 

 its shot over the wooded brow of the Forest, into the 

 " lower coal measures." But before itrolled to rest among 

 these, the ball, obliquing upwards, would first pass over 

 a bed of Red Conglomerate, mixed with marl and other 

 sandstones ; next cutting across a belt of yellow sands 

 with red marls, and sands of this tsame colour ; then a 

 tract of Mountain Shale and Mountain (carboniferous) 

 Limestone j after this, a stratum of Millstone Grit, and 

 another of Upper Sandstone, with seams of clay and 

 marls ; crossing the crest of this e]evated plateau, and 

 passing on finally to fall among the above-mentioned 

 " coal measures " ; which, quoting the words of an eminent 

 geologist, "are a relic of the most pi*ofuse vegetation the 

 world lias ever beheld." 



It may seem strange that a section of country so sig- 

 nalized in the countless ages past should still possess a 

 character in correspondence. But it is even so, its flora 

 being abundant beyond any other I know of. Within a 

 circle of 20 miles radius around my Louse, I find between 

 GOO and 700 species of phanerogamous plants, while the 

 eryptogamia are alike plentiful. If the theory advanced 

 be admitted, it would follow that the- f anna is pr(>p(.irtion- 

 ately rich; and so, in reality, it is. As proot sufficient — 

 and, to me, rather more than satisfactory — the lbs and 

 badger prey upon my poultry, assisted in their depreda- 

 tions by the pole-cat, weasel, and stoat; whilo hares and 

 rabbits crop the cabbages in my kitchen-garden. The 

 otter bathes its sleek body in a brook — an influent of the 

 Wye — which meanders through my ornamental grounds ; 



