NEW RED SANDSTONE ALTERED ALONG THE LINES OF ELEVATION. 297 



Though no trap is visible in Pirn Hill, yet this mass of veined and altered rock lies so directly 

 upon the axis of the trap of Moel-y-Golfa, that, independently of other proofs, this striking coin- 

 cidence in range might lead to the conjecture of a connection between them. But when to this fact 

 we add, that the principal dyke of Acton Reynolds is also precisely in this line, and three miles 

 more distant than Pirn Hill from the great source of eruption ; and further that the trap of these 

 dykes is identical in structure with that of Moel-y-Golfa, the conviction becomes irresistible that 

 a powerful line of dislocation caused by volcanic activity acting along the same fissure has also pro- 

 duced the alteration of the sandstone at this point. This anticlinal line is however traceable for 

 many miles to the E.N.E. far beyond Acton Reynolds, and usually elevates the strata "en dome," 

 as at Stanton and Blakeley Hills. It may, indeed, be followed into Staffordshire, passing the Bir- 

 mingham and Liverpool Canal near Goldstone Common, where highly dislocated strata were ob- 

 served by the Rev. Thomas Egerton precisely in the continuation of the axis above described, 

 though at a distance of upwards of thirty miles from Bauseley Hill, or the end of the ridge of 

 Moel-y-Golfa. 



Another line of elevation in the contiguous masses of New Red Sandstone has a direction nearly 

 parallel to the same axis. Being within a mile or two of the other it might by some be considered 

 merely as the west-north-western face of the same line of disturbance ; but when it is recollected 

 that the Breidden Hills present two principal parallel ridges with a depression between them (see 

 Map), the coincidence between the forms in which they have been erupted and the double lines of 

 elevated sandstone in North Salop, is too remarkable not to lead to a belief in the community of 

 their origin. While, therefore, the one parallel is referred to the axis of Moel-y-Golfa, the other 

 is conceived to be due to the eruption of the Breidden or Rodney Pillar Hill. The latter axis is 

 first marked in the bluff headlands of Ness Cliff, about a mile distant from the parallel of Moel-y- 

 Golfa, the beds being slightly bent or arched to the N.N.W. and S.S.E. 1 There are few pecu- 

 liarities in the lithological structure of these rocks, except that veins of quartz and sulphate of 

 barytes occasionally project above the weathered and lichenized surfaces of the sandstone, gene- 

 rally ranging oblique to the strike of the ridge. In Broughton and Clive Hill, still further to the 

 E.N.E., the strata contain concretions of calcareous spar, which sometimes inclose nests of green 

 carbonate and grey copper, iron pyrites, &c. 2 ; and copper ores in still greater abundance have 

 been recently observed at Tedstill, Pradoe, near the north-western edge of the Ness Cliff Hills. 

 Similar rocks, with veins of chalcedony, minute strings or nests of copper ore, small concretions 

 of white and red lamellar sulphate of barytes, and blackish spots (probably ferruginous oxide of 

 cobalt), occur in the escarpment of the Hawkstone Hills near Marchamley, where the strata dip to 

 the N.N.W. and pass beneath the red and green marls which support the lias of Prees and Cloverly. 

 As there is a zone of strata more or less metalliferous on this parallel, similar to that noticed in 

 the prolongation of the Moel-y-Golfa axis, it is natural to infer that they may have been produced 

 by the same cause. This line of elevation, or a branch of it, extends into the bolder range of hills, 

 which, proceeding from the south of Hawkstone, passes to the north of Hod-net, and by the south 

 side of Market Drayton, extends into Ashley Heath, Staffordshire, 800 feet above the sea, the highest 

 point perhaps in Great Britain, occupied by the New Red Sandstone 8 . 



1 It is from this spot that the preceding view of the Breidden Hills was taken. 



a At Broughton the calcareous matter so predominates, that the beds have been worked for lime-burning. 

 They dip to the N.N.W. (See p. 37 et seq. where these beds are referred to the Muschelkalk.) 



3 I have not yet traced these lines of dislocation to their termination on the E.N.E. This examination 

 would have led me beyond the region of the annexed map. 



