414 



CARADOC SANDSTONE OF THE MALVERN RANGE. 



notice, except occasional crystals of iron pyrites, very rarely a little heavy spar, and nests of an- 

 thracite in small cavities. 



Organic remains are nowhere more abundant in the Wenlock formation than in this 

 range, including all the characteristic species of shells, trilobites, and corals, p. 214. 

 When indeed we look at the number of beautiful figures in the plates, taken from spe- 

 cimens found on the western slopes of the Malvern Hills and at Ledbury, we must 

 suppose these localities to be the most favoured in the variety and number of fossils. 

 By far the greater part of these choice specimens have been collected by Mr. Benjamin 

 Bright 1 in the quarries upon the estate of his father at Brand Lodge, and 1 have, 

 therefore, no doubt, that if collectors as assiduous and enlightened as Mr. Bright, were 

 spread over other districts where the formation appears, the harvest would be equally 

 rich 2 . 



The Wenlock shale bears the same relations to the limestone, which the Lower does to the Upper 

 Ludlow rock, occupying longitudinal valleys beneath an escarpment. It is marked in the upper 

 part by numerous layers of small argillo-calcareous concretions, but in the central and lower parts, 

 these disappear, and with them the characteristic fossils. Towards the base, bands of sandy impure 

 limestone are observable as in Shropshire, but as these beds rise in separate ridges from beneath 

 the valleys occupied by the shale, they here, as in Salop, indicate a passage into, and are classed 

 with, the Caradoc sandstone. 



Although the Wenlock formation is much more largely developed in the west of the Malvern 

 Hills than in the Abberley Hills, it is difficult to assign a precise thickness to the whole. The 

 upper portion, containing the solid limestone, may indeed be measured at many points, and in- 

 cluding the bumbles may have a maximum thickness of about 300 feet ; though if examined at the 

 extremities of its course near Knightwick, it forms only one thin band. The underlying shale oc- 

 cupying as it does when fully expanded, valleys of about half a mile in width, wherein the strata are 

 inclined at high angles, cannot be estimated at less than 600 or 700 feet, which would give a total 

 thickness for the Wenlock formation in this tract of 900 or 1000 feet. 



Caradoc Sandstone. 



The uppermost band of the Caradoc sandstone is calcareous, sometimes so much so, as to 

 constitute an impure limestone like that of the Hollies in Salop, p. 21 7. It is not found in the 

 lowest part of the valleys, but usually upon the face of the underlying sandstone, as at various points 

 from Alfrick Pound on the N.N.W., to End Hill near Malvern on the S.S.E., from whence to the 

 Herefordshire Beacon, it is in great measure cut off by the syenite, and subjected to many flexures 

 and breaks, particularly near Mathon Lodge. It is again brought out to the west of Eastnor 

 Obelisk, where it consists of strong, dark-blue, calcareous flags, in beds from two to seven inches 



1 Mr. Ormus Biddulph has also a small collection of the fossils of the Wenlock limestone at Ledbury Park. 

 (See description of organic remains.) 



12 Since my first visits to the Malvern Hills, the city of Worcester has done honour to itself in establishing a 

 Natural History Society. An elegant and commodious building has been erected, the Museum of which, when 

 I last saw it, promised to be soon filled with all the characteristic Silurian fossils. 



