Chap. V.] 
THE MALVERN HILLS. 
95 
so emblematic of one of the lowest zones of Silurian life (see Foss. 7. 
p. 45), led me to believe that the Hollybush Sandstone and associated 
schists are the miniature representatives of the Lingula-flags of "Wales ; and 
as the Dictyonema (James Hall), the oldest known form of Polyzoon in 
Britain, has since been found in these beds by the Rev. W. S. Symonds, 
no doubt of their age can be entertained. In another chapter, and when 
treating of the Silurian rocks of Norway and Sweden, it will be proved 
that the relative thickness of deposits is no test whatever of their synchro- 
nism, though it is of the time which elapsed during their accumulation. The 
hundred feet or two of Hollybush Sandstones and black schists now under 
consideration are, in short, as M. Barrande suggested, the equivalents in 
time of the Primordial Silurian Zone, or the Lingula-flags of "Wales, already 
described in Chapter III. 
The sandstone and black schist which constitute the lowest fossiliferous 
sediment of this tract are thrown off to the east as well as to the west 
of the crystalline chain at Midsummer Hill, south of the Hereford 
Beacon. This is seen in traversing the ridge near its south end, from 
Chase-end Hill on the east, by the "White-leaved Oak, to the hilly arable 
ground on the west. The Malverns are therefore represented in the fol- 
lowing diagram as exhibiting a geological saddle, having one thin and 
partly metamorphosed flap only on the east side, and several thick flaps 
on the west, the lower part of one of which only is in an altered condition. 
Among the older strata visible on the east flank are the same black schists, 
subordinate to sandy flags, which on the western slope of the ridge of syenite 
have given to the ground the name of Coal Hill f, and in which the species 
of Olenus and Agnostus already mentioned have been sparingly detected. 
The reader will understand the facts by consulting this little general 
diagram J. 
Section from the Malvern Hills to Ledbury. 
W. E. 
Ledbury. Eastnor. Obelisk. Malvern Hills. 
i h g f e f g f e d c b a * a 
This woodcut, slightly modified from a coloured section in the ' Silurian System ' (pi. 
36. f. 8), explains the general order and the undulations on the west side of the Mal- 
vern Hills, in the parallel of Midsummer Hill, Eastnor Park, and Ledbury. The 
eruptive rocks, #, of the Malvern ridge are associated with and flanked by crystalline 
felstone, schists, and gneissic rocks, a. To the west these are followed by the Holly- 
bush Sandstone and the Black Schists with Olenus, b. The Upper Llandovery Sand- 
stone and Conglomerate are marked by c ; their higher portion dips down from the 
Obelisk Hill of Eastnor, and passes under the Woolhope, or Lower Wenlock lime- 
stone, d. The latter is followed by the Wenlock shale, e, and the Wenlock lime- 
stone, / ; which last, bending under the Lower Ludlow, g, reappears in a dome that 
throws off towards Ledbury the whole of the Ludlow formation, h i, after a flexure 
in Wellington Heath, under the Old Eed Sandstone, j. 
t Absurd trials for coal have been made by ignorant persons in this black Lower Silurian 
shale on both sides of the eruptive axis. 
I See Sil. Syst. p. 418, and coloured section, pi. 36. f. 8. 
