776 



THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. 



Lect. VIII. 



with which we are acquainted, took place after the deposition 

 p4 ^ of the coal measures and Triassic 



sandstone.* 



16. The Malvern Hills. — 

 In Worcestershire, the different 

 members of the Silurian system 

 are well developed, and though 

 occupying a narrower zone than in 

 Shropshire, constitute a continuous 

 band for a distance of between 

 twenty and thirty miles ; viz. from 

 the northern end of the Abberley 

 Hills, to the southern extremity of 

 the Malverns ; " and though the 

 strata are dislocated, and even 

 through a course of four miles en- 

 tirely reversed, yet they maintain 

 a prevalent inclination to the west, 

 and dip beneath the Old Ked-sand- 

 stone of Herefordshire. Emerging 

 through the Silurian deposits, and 

 forming a buttress on their eastern 

 flank, are certain igneous rocks, 

 which, in the Abberley Hills, pro- 

 trude only at intervals through 

 the dislocated strata, but in the 

 Malverns constitute a narrow ridge 

 of syenite, rising to some height 



* Silurian System, p. 235. It would be foreign to the object of 

 these Lectures to enter more fully on the highly interesting phenomena 

 presented by those districts in Staffordshire, Shropshire, Worcester- 

 shire, and Pembrokeshire, which have been the theatre of submarine 

 volcanic eruptions, as proved by the ridges and protrusions of igneous 

 rocks ; but I would fain hope that the intelligent reader may be 

 induced, from what has been stated, to refer to the " Silurian System " 

 of Sir R. Murchison, which contains a lucid account of the facts thus 



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