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THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect. VIII. 



and stretching in a parallel direction with the Silurian 

 range previously described, is another chain of hills, about 



Calcot Hill. Walton Hilt, St.Kenelms. 



Triassic. Trap rocks. Triassic conglomerate. 



Lign. 174. — Section of the Clent Hills. 

 (Sir R. Murchison's Sil. Syst.) 



six miles in length, and varying in height from 800 to 

 1000 feet, called the Clent Hills.* This elevated district is 

 formed by a protrusion of felspathic trap rocks through the 

 Triassic strata, as shown in Lign. 174.f This basaltic 

 eruption must have taken place after the carboniferous 

 strata were deposited, and long antecedent to the Triassic. 

 The following description by Mr. Hugh Miller is too 

 graphic to be omitted . — 



* The New Red-sandstone, out of which the Clent Hills arise, 

 forms a rich, slightly undulating country, reticulated by many a green 

 lane and luxuriant hedge-row ; the hills themselves are deeply scooped 

 by hollow dells, furrowed by shaggy ravines, and roughened by con- 

 fluent eminencies ; and on the south-western slopes of one of the finest 

 and most variegated of the range, half on the comparatively level 

 red sandstone, half on the steep-sided billowy trap, lie the grounds of 

 Hagely. Let the Edinburgh reader imagine such a trap hill as that 

 which rises on the north-east between Arthur's Seat and the sea, 

 tripled or quadrupled in its extent of base, hollowed by dells and 

 ravines of considerable depth, covered by a soil capable of sustaining 

 the noblest trees, mottled over with votive urns, temples, and obelisks, 



* Within the precincts of the Clent Hills are Hagely, the seat of 

 Lord Lyttleton, which the muse of Thomson has rendered classic 

 ground ; and the equally celebrated Leasowes of Shenstone. 



f The trap or volcanic rock of the Clent, Lickey, and Abberley 

 Hills, is chiefly composed of brownish-red compact felspar, occasionally 

 porphyritic, and sometimes passing into a fine concretionary rock. — 

 Sir B. Murchison ; Sil Syst. p. 496. 



