THE BONE-WELL, LADY POOLS, ETC. 



251 



The bones, however, are not those of fishes, but principally of frogs 1 . 



A mass of the Upper Ludlow rock, instead of dipping to south-east, or the lower country con- 

 formably with the adjoining ridge of Vinnalls Hill, is snapped asunder and plunges to the north. This, 

 like many other dislocations, has given rise to a collection of materials forming a wall or dam, which 

 prevents the descent of water and throws it out to the surface. (See wood-cut.) The water issues 

 from one of the joints before described, and as this joint is doubtlessly connected with many other 

 similar open cracks, which ramify through the higher slopes of the ridge, we can easily comprehend 

 how the minute bones of frogs or even of mice, living and dying on the adjacent hills, should from 

 time to time be washed down through connecting fissures and discharged at the first natural source 

 wide enough to afford them egress ; their occasional issue depending on floods, sudden thaws, and such 

 causes 9 . The geologist, indeed, is well aware that lines of fault are often traceable by the outburst 

 of springs alone. We may see a good example of this phenomenon in that denudated part of the 

 Ludlow promontory which constitutes the valley between Yatton Hill and Leinthall Earls, where 

 a land spring is always flowing copiously, the point of issue being precisely upon one of the lines 

 of dislocation previously described. 



"The most remarkable springs of this country," says Mr. Lewis of Aymestry in a letter to 

 myself, "are the Lady-pools in Shobden Marshes, the property of Lord Bateman, where the river 

 Pinsley, a tributary of the Lugg, (whose limpid chalk-like stream you were so struck with below 

 the Church of Leominster,) has its origin. They are several in number, within an area of half 

 an acre, varying every day in form and dimensions, from ten to thirty feet across, and fourteen to 

 twenty feet deep. The water is very cold and clear, and fish are seldom observed near its source. 

 The copious supply of water is seen issuing from the bottom by the motion of little confluent cones 

 of fine sand which are continually thrown up, changing their shape, position, and magnitude every 

 moment, the motion suddenly ceasing in one place and commencing in another ; a jump, or even a 

 shaking of the ground (bog- land), will stop some of the sources and bring new ones into action ; so 

 that the bottom of the pools presents a continually varying aspect, which is really beautiful, and is 

 of course no small cause of wonderment to the country people." 



I would attribute these issues (like other land-springs of which I have spoken) to the existence 

 of a longitudinal fault, which ranges from north-east to south-west, parallel to the great line of 

 elevation of the Silurian rocks. Such a fault barring the descent of the waters on the inclined 

 plane of Upper Ludlow Rocks would naturally throw up the water to the surface, and the form of 

 the country favours this view ; for the overlying rocks have been denuded, the strata from which 

 the water rises being simply covered by turf or bog. 



The shales of the Ludlow and Wenlock formations, when well exposed, are seen in escarpments 

 only, and in that position they can seldom be the seat of natural wells ; but whenever they have sub- 

 sided into undercliffs or mounds, or occur on the sides of denudated valleys, and particularly when 

 covered by gravel or other detritus, they retain the atmospheric waters, and then the wells are ne- 

 cessarily of shallow depth and supplied with good water. In this, however, as in all tracts made 



1 A small box full of the bones from this well having been examined by that excellent comparative anatomist 

 Mr. Clift, F.R.S., its contents have been pronounced by him to belong exclusively to the frog. 



2 I was much indebted to Mr. Jones of Ludlow for collecting bones from this well. In the description of 

 the organic remains I shall further express my obligations to him, in common with Dr. Lloyd and Mr. Lewis, 

 for the donation of many valuable fossils of the Ludlow Rock. 



