484 



ME. P. KtTTLET ON THE ROCKS 



The first, or northern, coarsely crystalline mass is cut off on the 

 south by a fault near the Wych Pass ; while the other -coarsely 

 crystalline mass is bounded by a fault on the north of the Here- 

 fordshire Beacon, and by another which cuts across Swinyard's Hill, 

 near the highest part of the ridge. It is to these three faults that 

 I would specially direct attention, as they appear, from adjacent 

 lithological evidence, to be the principal dislocations of the chain. 



We will deal first with the northern mass. Dr. Holl states * 

 that there is, nearly opposite the ravine (the Dingle) which 

 separates the Worcestershire Beacon from Summer Hill, a fault 

 which " has carried the Woolhope Limestone, on its southern side, 

 30 yards further to the west." 



Meeting with breccia on the eastern slope of the range in the 

 vicinity of St. Ann's Well, it occurred to me that it might indicate a 

 fault and that the line of fault just alluded to, and which is shown on 

 the map accompanying Dr. Holl's paper, would, if produced, touch 

 the spot at which this breccia occurs. Drawing such a line across the 

 Ordnance six-inch scale map, I endeavoured to trace the breccia, and 

 found a small exposure of it just where the line crossed the ridge of 

 the hill, above and a little to the south of the head of the Dingle. 

 Several hours of search for further evidence resulted in the discovery 

 of breccia at various points, near the line, but sufficiently far from 

 it to show that, if the breccia indicated a fault, it was either very 

 sinuous or, more probably, was itself faulted by transverse disloca- 

 tions. I think, however, it may be assumed that a fault does 

 actually cross the range at this point ; for, apart from the occurrence 

 of breccia, the strike of the rocks composing the Worcestershire 

 Beacon does not agree with the general strike of those on the other 

 side of a line drawn along the Dingle and over the ridge to St. 

 Ann's Well. 



Eoughly classifying the chief rocks of the Malvern axis, we may 

 separate them into three groups, viz. : — 



Upper group == Schists and fine-grained gneiss. 

 Middle group =Fine- and medium-grained gneiss. 

 Lower group = Medium- and coarse-grained gneiss, with 

 diorite and granite. 



Between these groups there exist no definite lines of demarca- 

 tion, all three groups being composed of alternating beds of variable 

 texture. 



The Upper group is, however, specially characterized by the 

 prevalence of schists, while the Lower group consists mainly of beds 

 of very coarsely crystalline gneiss alternating with granite, syenite, 

 and diorite. 



The range from the extreme north to the Wych consists mainly 

 of the Lower, with perhaps the base of the Middle group. 



Prom the Wych to the Herefordshire Beacon the rocks belong 

 chiefly to the Middle group. But it seems probable that some of 



* Op. cit p. 95. 



