THE GEOLOGIST 



APEIL, 1858. 



ON THE LOWER CAEBONIEEROUS BEDS OF THE 

 CLEE HILLS. 



By Geoege E. Bobeets, Esq., of Kidderminster, 

 Member of the Worcestershire Naturalist Eield Club," &c. 



Peehaps in all the physical geology of England there is nothing finer 

 than the erupted heights of the Clee. Encircled by the typical Old 

 Ked" — a wide- stretching tract of alternating sandy shores and gravel- 

 beaches of that period — are the characteristic beds of the coal-measures, 

 lying upon Millstone Grit and Mountain Limestone. 



Of the causes that have elevated these deposits into the hills of Titter- 

 stone and the Brown Clee I need not speak — their basaltic summits, 

 where the erupted rock has assumed a rude columnar form after cooling, 

 are sufficient evidence ; but I would direct especial attention to that 

 group of beds whose strike is along the Oreton ridge, and whose chief 

 member, the Mountain Limestone, forms its axial line. This lies mid- 

 way between the two hills ; its southern side slopes down the 

 *' Common," and is composed of Millstone Grit, cut off abruptly by a 

 long line of fault, the effect of which has been to have depressed that 

 deposit into a valley, and to have raised the underlying Old Eed " 

 into a nearly continuous line of cliff. The accompanying section will 

 better describe their relative positions. 



