CENTRAL DOME OF CARADOC SANDSTONE. 



429 



This elevated mass is of an ovoidal or pear-shape, the major axis from north-west to 

 south-east being six miles from the village of Dormington at the larger end, to the farm 

 of Lindels near the south-eastern apex. The transverse diameter measures four miles, 

 from the village of Fownhope on the south-west, to the outward flank of Seager Hill on 

 the north-east. Within this area the three upper formations of the Silurian System 

 are elevated into concentrical and conformable masses, the strata of each dipping out- 

 wards from a common centre, and the whole passing beneath the Old Red Sandstone. 



I shall in few words describe each of these elliptical-shaped masses, proceeding from 

 their centre to their flanks, and beginning therefore with the most ancient of the three 

 deposits. 



The central mass called Haugh Wood is about two miles long, by one and a half 

 broad. The strata exposed in the central portion of this nucleus are quartzose grits of 

 the Caradoc sandstone (d 1 of wood-cut). These beds rising to a height of upwards of 

 600 feet in the centre of the wood, where they are nearly horizontal, dip away on all 

 sides at angles not exceeding 12° or 15°. From the gentle and equable curvature of 

 the surface of this central dome, the strata are little fissured and the lower parts of the 

 Caradoc sandstone are not exposed ; thin bedded siliceous sandstone and quartzose grit 

 being the lowest beds visible. 



As in Shropshire (p. 271), or on the west flank of the Malverns (p. 414), the upper- 

 most member of this formation is a hard impure limestone (d of wood-cut) , occasionally 

 burnt, but more frequently used as a road stone. Folding around the central dome 

 of Haugh Wood, it is well developed near Woolhope, and may therefore be termed 

 " Woolhope limestone." It is quarried at Woolhope, Limburies, Littlehope, Rudge 

 End, Joans Hill and Westerton. (See coloured section, PL 36. fig. 9 a and 9 b .) In 

 mineralogical character it is undistinguishable from that of Stumps Wood on the west 

 side of the Malverns, being a hard, dark blue, thick flaglike limestone ; the surfaces 

 frequently chequered with transverse septa?, occupied by pink calcareous spar ; a few 

 way -boards of unctuous clay lying between the beds. 



The next strata in ascending order are composed of shale of the Wenlock limestone, (c 1 

 of wood-cut) which here, as in most other parts previously described, is deeply denuded. 

 Hence its place is marked by a depression, which varies in width from half to 

 three quarters of a mile. Towards the north-eastern turn of the valley, however, 

 where the encircling deposits are most expanded, this shale rises into low hills on 

 the sides of the road leading frOm Mordiford to Checkley Common, where the strata 

 dip 15° north-east. (See Map.) It is here interlaminated with many thin courses and 

 concretions of impure limestone and hard marl, in which are shells and corals charac- 

 teristic of the Wenlock formation, together with portions of the Asaphus caudatus and 

 other trilobites. The soil along this zone is very variable, being rich enough to pro 

 duce hops and wheat where the calcareous matter prevails, but cold and sterile where it 

 is wanting. 



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