446 



MAY HILL AXIS TRACED TO PURTON PASSAGE. 



These rocks rise into a narrow ridgy hill, and have been partially quarried. The beds are com- 

 posed of very slightly micaceous, flaglike, argillaceous sandstone, with thin courses of impure, 

 shelly limestone, which may have been the object of search in these quarries. Among the fossils 

 are Leptama lata, Terebratula lacunosa, Schlot. (plicatella Dalm.), together with the spiral uni- 

 valves Pleurotomaria corallii and Turbo corallii, Sec. 1 ; proving these beds to be equivalents of the 

 Upper Ludlow Rock and Aymestry limestone. The strike is 10° to 12° west of north, and the 

 dip 50° eastwards, precisely coinciding with Flaxley point. 



The last-mentioned beds subside gradually to the south, giving to the little ridge the 

 elongated, ovoidal form represented in the map, the agricultural features of which are 

 prominently distinguished from the red lands environing it. Hence, to that point on 

 the left bank of the Severn, at which the anticlinal passes into the districts of Berkeley 

 and Tortworth, there is no further emergence of the Silurian rocks, though there are 

 spots along which the line of elevation is more or less indicated. One of these is marked 

 by the form of the high land to the north-east of Blakeney, and further by the arched 

 disposition of courses of impure cornstone. On the left bank of the brook, half a mile 

 east of Bideford, naglike, hard red sandstone is thrown sharply off to the west. Simi- 

 larly arched strata, dipping both to the east and west, are observed in the hills below 

 Haglow Court ; and, lastly, when we reach the right bank of the Severn in the prolon- 

 gation of a line determined by the direction of these arched masses, we have evidence 

 of a perfect anticlinal in the Old Red Sandstone of the Milkmaid rock, about one mile 

 north of the ferry-house at Purton Passage as represented beneath. "This arch, the 

 prolongation of the anticlinal line, and the rise of the Silurian rocks in the Berkeley and 

 Tortworth districts, will be described in the ensuing chapter. 



1 See observations on these univalves being enveloped by the same corals near Ludlow, and also on the Wye 

 near Builth, p. 312. 



South. North. 



96. 



a. Cliffs of Old Red Sandstone on the right or west bank of the Severn, arching over at the Milkmaid rock. 



b. Dome of Upper Silurian rocks rising on the left bank of the Severn. 



c. May Hill seen in the distance (course of the anticlinal above described). 



