486 



MR. F. ET/TLEY ON THE EOCES 



Swinyard's Hill be a re-emergence of the beds forming the Wor- 

 cestershire Beacon, it then becomes interesting to compare the 

 immediately superincumbent rocks in the Herefordshire Beacon and 

 those in the tract lying between the Wych aud the Worcestershire 

 Beacon ; and we may, for this purpose take Dr. Holl's statements 

 as a close approximation to the truth. 



In the Herefordshire Beacon he records the presence of gneissic 

 rocks, both hornblendie and micaceous, mica-schists, hornblendic 

 rock, and large granite veins. 



From the Wych to halfway up the southern slope of the 

 Worcestershire Beacon he also notes the occurrence of mica-schists, 

 hornblende-schists, gneissic rocks, diorites, granitoid rocks, and 

 granite veins. In this series, out of a roughly paced distance of 

 677 yards, about 400 yards consists of rocks described as schistose 

 and gneissic, and it therefore seems quite possible that they are 

 the northern representatives of the rocks forming the Herefordshire 

 Beacon, which, as already mentioned, may probably be referred to 

 the upper part of the Lower and the lower portion of the Middle 

 groups. In these questions of correlation I speak with great diffi- 

 dence and must disclaim any wish to dogmatize. I would rather 

 suggest, leaving future observers to draw their own conclusions. 

 The probability of the repetition of beds here indicated has gradually 

 forced itself upon me, both from field-work and in the endeavour to 

 construct an intelligible section * through the range ; and, on 

 reference to the latter, it will be seen that the elevations and sub- 

 sidences of the larger rock-masses have, I think, often occurred 

 somewhat unevenly, while, in addition to this, I believe that some 

 of them have sunk more or less to the east or west during the 

 movements which have shattered and faulted the ancient ridge. 



Throughout this paper I have spoken of the bands of gneiss, 

 schist, and other rocks which constitute the chief mass of the 

 Malvern Hills, as beds. This has been done partly for the sake of 

 convenience and partly because the foliation of these rocks seems, as 

 a rule, to be parallel to the divisional planes which appear, on the 

 ground, to represent stratification. Aware of the difficulties which 

 environ questions connected with foliation, I would, indeed, prefer 

 to employ the expression divisional planes in lieu of stratification, 

 bedding, or any more precise term. Darwin, whose observations on 

 this subject are, in the main, opposed to the assumption that direc- 

 tions of foliation agree with those of bedding, has remarked that 

 the strike of the foliation in most countries lies parallel to axes of 

 elevation f ; hut if the ridge of the Malvern hills be an axis of 

 elevation, the general law which he here enunciates is apparently 

 violated throughout a considerable part of the range. 



That such repeated change in the strike of the divisional planes 



* The views of the late Professor Phillips, although given in considerable 

 detail in the Memoirs of the Greological Survey, are simply expressed on the 

 published sections by a wash of vermilion. 



t ' Geological Observations on South America,' 1846, p. 166. See also 

 Scrope's ' Volcanos,' 2nd ed. 1862, p. 299. 



