230 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



one side, — for a river ahvays adds to the beauty of any landscape — and 

 the absence of this is almost the only defect in the general scenery of 

 the outer escarpments of the Cotswolds, since the Severn can only be dis- 

 tinctly seen from the more southern hills, as Eobinswood, near Gloucester, 

 and others in that direction. Prom Alder ton Hill a fine view may 

 be obtained, both of Bredon, the Malverns, the hills about Gretton, 

 Stanley, "Winchcomb, and Sudeley, with their well- wooded, grassy 

 slopes, and the ramifying valleys which intersect them. 



The geologist will carefully notice the scenery, not only for its own 

 sake, but for its value in the physical geography of a country. It is 

 not enough merely to examine a section in a quarry, and to note the 

 zoological contents of the beds ; a much wider survey must be taken of 

 those grand phenomena which have, at various and immeasurably dis- 

 tant periods, affected the crust of the earth, upraising deep-seated rocks, 

 and causing, in various ways, the present configuration of its moun- 

 tain-chains and valleys, regulating its river-courses, and giving to the 

 outer surface of the globe its present diversified outlines, so attractive 

 to the eye and so serviceable to man. 



To violent and often repeated igneous action in former times, must 

 be attributed the breaks and dislocations, whether of upheaval or 

 depression, of which (in technical language termed '^faults") many 

 instructive examples may be seen on the southern side of Eredou 

 Hill, at Dumbleton and Oxenton, and in many other localities of 

 the Lias, especially in the neighbourhood of Tewkesbury, where an 

 extensive fault, traversing both the Lias and Eed Marl, may be traced 

 for a considerable distance. 



Hcturning from this digression, we will now ascend Alderton 

 Hill ; passing over the lower Lias, which is there no where laid bare, 

 we reach the Marlstone, which is partially quarried, but not to 

 its entire thickness. On this the upper Lias immediately reposes, 

 its lower portion only being visible ; the main mass forming the top 

 of the hill which is covered by a thick plantation, so that only about 

 twenty feet of the rock appears. Kcarest the Marlstone it consists 

 of a blue indurated clay, containing many fossil shells, especially a pretty 

 species of Rostcllaria, very difficult to extract entire. The beds 

 above are cliicfiy shale, varying in colour and consistency, the colours 

 brown and grey prevailing. Many fossils may also be found in it, 

 chiefly Ammonites, which are abundant, but very fragile ; and at 



