DISLOCATIONS — ABBERLEY AND MALVERN HILLS. 



423 



dered vertical, but are partially bent back, as in this wood-cut, thus presenting the 

 same phenomena as in the Abberley Hills, though the degree of inversion is less. 



a. Syenite. ~b. Wenlock Limestone removed from the syenite and unaffected. 



6*. Wenlock shale vertical and partially bent back. 

 <?. Impure limestone and Caradoc grit overturned. 



In the description of the Malvern Hills, Mr. Leonard Horner, with his usual sagacity, 

 remarks upon the singular appearance which these strata present, of dipping towards 

 the syenite, where he adds, " they seem to have been raised not only into a vertical 

 position, but even thrown back, and in some degree inverted 1 ." The order of super- 

 position of the ancient stratified deposits, was at that period necessarily so incomplete, 

 that no one could have proved the beds had been overturned ; and thus we see the value 

 of establishing the succession of the Silurian System. The section represented in the 

 above wood-cut, which is in fact only a part of the coloured section (PI. 36, f. 7.), was 

 recently laid open by cutting a new road to Mathon Lodge. So long as the Wenlock 

 formation occupies the immediate coast (if we may so speak) of the syenite of the Mal- 

 vern Hills, so far the strata are violently broken and disturbed, particularly on the steep 

 acclivities of the Hereford Beacon, as in this wood-cut. 



93. 



a. Syenite. 



b. Wenlock Limestone unaltered. 



M. Wenlock Limestone broken and altered. 



At this remarkable point is a great change in the direction of the strata. They strike 

 to the S.S.E. until they reach the Malvern syenite ; and then they are thrown into 

 vertical and disjointed masses, having a north and south strike, accommodated to the 

 western flank of the intrusive rock, and finally jut out to the south-west in low 

 parallel ridges. As the chain of syenite continues its course to the south, whilst 

 the Wenlock and Ludlow formations diverge to the south-west, the interval between 

 these lines affords space for the elevation of the Caradoc sandstone, which resumes 

 its regular place, dipping conformably under the younger rocks, its lower members 

 only being affected by the syenite on which they rest. The transverse section (PI. 36. 



1 Geological Transactions, Old Series, vol. i. p. 320, 



3 g2 



