778 



THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect. VIII. 



Malverns and the Old Red-sandstone, is beautifully exposed 

 in a transverse section from Midsummer Hill to Ledbury. 



But there is one feature in the geology of the Malvern 

 Hills that demands particular notice. The Silurian strata 

 in immediate contact with the Syenite (as, for example, near 

 Mathon Lodge) are partly bent back, as shown in the 

 section, Lign. 176, in which the Wenlock limestone (3), is 

 seen removed from the syenite, and unaffected; while the 

 Caradoc limestone and grit (4), are overturned, and dip in 

 an opposite direction.* 



In the Abberley Hills, the same phenomenon appears in 

 a more striking point of view ; and through a range of four 

 or five miles, the Devonian, Ludlow, and Wenlock strata 

 are completely inverted, the newer formations being over- 

 laid by the older, " and so symmetrical is this retroversion 

 in some parts, that any geologist, who had not previously 

 made himself acquainted with the true order of super- 

 position, would naturally conceive the Wenlock limestone 

 to be younger than the Ludlow rock, and the latter of newer 

 origin than the Old Red-sandstone." + 



The Lickey Hills, which are situated about three miles 

 from the southern extremity of the Dudley coal-field, and 

 consist of a narrow ridge of quartz rocks, about three miles 

 in length, and four or five hundred feet high, are referred 

 by Sir R. I. Murchison to the Caradoc sandstone ; a lower 

 zone of the Silurian system than is apparent in any other 

 part of this district. As in the case of the altered sand- 

 stones on the .flanks of the Wrekin (ante, p. 772), the 

 quartz rock of the Lickey gradually passes into a fossil- 

 iferous sandstone, full of the characteristic organic remains 

 of the Caradoc strata.} A mass of trap, being the pro- 



* See Plate 36, of Sil. Syst. f Sil. Sys. p. 420, 421. 



X The quartz pebbles, so largely distributed over this part of Eng- 

 land, and extending into the valley of the Thames, arc waterworn 

 fragments of the rocks composing this ridge ; sec ante, p. 212. 



