92 
SILURIA. 
[Chap. V. 
well as to those under which they dip, a few pages may be instructively 
devoted to a sketch of the leading features of that striking ridge of hills. 
Malvern HiUs. — The picturesque tract above referred to, detached from 
the main region over which rocks of Silurian age are continuously extended, 
is chiefly composed of the undulating grounds which lie upon the western 
flank of the Malvern Hills. The accompanying vignette represents the 
North Hill. Worcester Beacon. Hereford Beacon. 
View op the Malvern Hills from the West. 
(From a sketch by Lady Murchison, Sil. Syst. p. 409.) 
Herefordshire Beacon on the right hand, followed by the Worcestershire 
Beacon and the North Hill in the distance, as seen from the undulating 
grounds composed of Upper Silurian rocks which occupy the western flank 
of the ridge, the highest parts of which are exclusively composed of crys- 
talline rock, both eruptive and metamorphic *. 
Though occupying a much narrower zone than in the typical tract of 
Shropshire, the Silurian rocks constitute an almost continuous band, from 
the northern end of the Abberley Hills to the southern extremity of the 
Malvern Hills, a distance of about twenty-four miles. Throughout this 
space the beds strike, on the whole, from north to south, and dip rapidly 
to the west, by which they pass under the Old Red Sandstone of Here- 
fordshire f. In the northernmost part of this line of elevation, or the 
Abberley Hills, no rock of truly eruptive character is seen except at one 
spot, west of Martley, where, many years ago, I detected a small boss of 
syenite, identical in character with the chief eruptive rock which protrudes 
in large masses on the summits and slopes of the Malvern Hills. 
That crystalline ridge, chiefly of igneous and metamorphic origin, was 
* Since the last edition of this work, the Mai- faithfully recorded ; and an interesting exposure 
vera ridge has been traversed by the Worcester of the Passage-beds from the Ludlow rocks into 
and Hereford Eailroad ; and a section thereof, on the Old Red Sandstone, at Ledbury, is described 
a large scale, was made by Mr. Allan Lambert, both in that memoir and in vol. xvi. p. 194, of the 
A description of the strata passed through, be- Geological Society's J ournal. 
tween Malvern Wells and Ledbury, illustrated by a t On the east all these rocks are flanked by the 
reduced copy of that section, is given by Mr. Lam- New Red Sandstone, the divisions of which have 
bert and the Rev. W. S. Symonds, in the Journal been laid down in the Sheets 43 & 55 of the Geo- 
of the Geological Society, vol. xvii. p. 154 &c. The logical Survey Map. See also the memoirs, by the 
relative position of the several igneous and schis- late Hugh Strickland, Phil. Mag. 4th Ser. vol. ii. 
tose rocks of the Malvern Hills, succeeded on that p. 358 ; and by the Rev. W. S. Symonds, Journ. 
parallel by the Upper Llandovery and the whole Geol. Soc. vol. xi. p. 450, vol. xvii. p. 152, and 
series of the Wenlock and Ludlow rocks, is there Edin. New Phil. Journ. vol. v. p. 257. 
