420 DISLOCATIONS CAUSED BY THE RISE OF THE ABBERLEY AND MALVERN HILLS. 



pression north of Berrow Hill, three quarters of a mile west- south-west of the village of Martley, 

 and near the junction of the Old and New Red Sandstones. This rock is made up of flesh-coloured, 

 compact felspar, white quartz, and silvery mica, and passes into a mass undistinguishable from 

 several varieties of the syenitic greenstone of the Malvern Hills. The discovery of this boss of 

 true Malvern rock on the strike of the main direction of the chain, and in the midst of the concre- 

 tionary trap of the Abberley Hills, is a satisfactory and additional proof of their common origin, 

 particularly when coupled with the existence of a syenitic dyke at Brockhill, proceeding from 

 the western flank of these hills, and cutting through the Old Red Sandstone, (see p. 186.) Like 

 the cases north of Malvern and at Brockhill, this little hillock of syenite appears to have been 

 intruded into the Old Red Sandstone, but its relations are ill exhibited, not having been much 

 worked into upon its flanks. Owing to the sloping and unbroken sides of the trappean hills south 

 of Abberley, clear examples of these contacts between the stratified and unstratified rocks, so 

 frequently pointed out in other parts, are not met with ; but in the debris on the sides of the hills, 

 specimens are repeatedly found of veined and hardened sandstone, identical with the altered strata 

 on the sides of the Brockhill dyke of syenite. 



Dislocations. 



The effects produced by the elevation of the Malvern and Abberley Hills are perhaps 

 more striking than in any other part of England. Of all these dislocations, the most 

 remarkable extend from near Abberley Lodge on the north, to Hill End on the south, 

 a distance of about five miles, throughout which the Old Red Sandstone, Ludlow, and 

 Wenlock rocks are completely inverted, the younger formations being overlaid by the 

 older. Any transverse section made from west to east across the Abberley Hills, 

 displays this phenomenon. In the principal hill, or Abberley Hill, properly so called, 

 the Ludlow formation, having a central zone of impure limestone, is thrown up into the 

 escarpment, and near the northern extremity of the ridge has a strike 8° east of north 

 and west of south, and a dip to the east at angles varying from 35° to 80°, whilst the 

 Wenlock limestone is found at one point only, and at a much lower level, arched over 

 and violently contorted. The same confusion prevails in the culminating parts of the 

 ridge, between the Hundred House and Abberley, but here the Wenlock limestone is 

 entirely cut out for a certain distance, and replaced by trap rocks. Not only is the 

 Ludlow formation exposed in violently contorted strata in the quarries above Abberley, 

 but there are even patches of Old Red Sandstone upon the higher parts of the hill, as 

 seen on the sides of the high road from Ludlow to Worcester, (see PI. 36, f. 1.) Where 

 the Wenlock limestone is found again, to the south of this scene of convulsion, it is in 

 nearly vertical strata, occupying a lower zone ; and the beds slightly thrown over from 

 the perpendicular, are singularly bent and broken, appearing as if they folded round a 

 nucleus of eruptive rock. 



In Walsgrove Hill, a deep quarry cut into the side of the hill for the extraction of 

 the impure limestone of the Ludlow rocks, first taught me that the Silurian formations 

 had been really overturned. (PI. 36, f. 2 & 3, and this wood-cut.) 



