Vol. 56.] STEUCTUEE OF THE MALVERN AND ABBERLEY HILLS. 179 



movements, which have taken place in the same sense as the 

 primary folding, but everywhere, except in the Central Plateau of 

 France, the chief disturbance appears to have occurred in Coal- 

 Measure times. 1 



XV. The Directions of the Hercynian Movements in the 

 Western Midlands. 



The disposition of the folds over the wide area affected by the 

 Hercynian movement shows that the movements took place along 

 two series of intersecting lines. Thus the Armorican and Variscian 

 ranges meet at nearly a right angle in the Central Plateau of France. 

 A similar series of intersecting lines is well shown in the Malvern area. 

 The direction of the axes of the folds is somewhat variable, so much 

 so, indeed, that Mr. "Wickham Xing has distinguished a northerly and 

 southerly (Malvernian), an easterly and westerly (Hercynian 

 or Mercian), a north-westerly and south-easterly (Charnian or 

 "Woolhope), and a north-easterly and south-westerly (Scandi- 

 navian) folding. 2 Now, although these terms may be useful for 

 descriptive purposes, they somewhat disguise, in my opinion, the 

 true state of the case, by suggesting that the folds are of different 

 ages, and are related in time to folds produced at other periods. 

 The relations may be more simply explained by recognizing the 

 existence in the Malvern and Abberley area of one set of folds 

 running either north and south or north-west and south-east, and 

 a second set at right angles to these respectively. The former set 

 is characterized by the peculiarity that the overfolding has commonly 

 taken place from the eastern side, while the latter set has been over- 

 folded from the south. There is no reason to believe that these two 

 sets of movements have taken place at different geological periods ; 

 for, apart from the great similarity of the structure produced in 

 each case and the continuity of the folds, 3 the inversion of the 

 older Coal Measures associated with both sets of folds and the 

 unconformity at the base of the Upper Coal Measures throughout the 

 Western Midland district go far to show that both sets of movements 

 took place chiefly in the limited interval between the deposition 

 of the older and the newer Coal Measures. 



XVI. The Relation of the Folds of the Malvern- Abberley 

 Area to those of Adjoining Districts. 



The geological relationships between the Malvern, Woolhope, 

 May Hill, and Tortworth areas were clearly seen by Phillips. 4 He 



1 Suess, ' Antlitz der Erde' vol. ii (1888) pp. 123 et seqq., 138, 147, & 148. 



2 Proc. Geol. Assoc, vol. xv (1898) p. 426. 



3 The most striking instance of this is seen at the northern end of the Abberley 

 Hills, where the axis veers rapidly round from its northerly direction and turns 

 eastward. Were the two folds even of slightly different ages, it might be reason- 

 ably expected that one would continue beyond the end of the other. The two are 

 clearly continuous. 



4 Mem. Geol. Surv. vol. ii (1848) pt. i, pp. 181, 189, 190, & 207- 



s 2 



