Chap. V.] UPPER LLANDOVERY— MAY HILL. 99 
the South Malvern section there is a great hiatus between this deposit and 
the fundamental stratified masses of the tract. Applying the same test to 
May Hill, by ascending from the lowest visible rocks, we meet there with 
a much greater omission. 
This ascending order is best exposed on the sides of the highroad pass- 
ing from Gloucester to Ross, near the village of Huntley. In approaching 
the higher ground, the first rock which is observed to jut out from the 
plain of the New Eed Marls, has all the aspect of the Cambrian rocks of 
the Longmynd. It is a hard, siliceous, close-grained, dark-grey, schistose 
stone with quartz-veins, and is quarried for the use of the roads. Con- 
taining no fossils, and being much broken and contorted, this rock has no 
visible connexion with the overlying sandstones and shale exposed in 
ascending May Hill, in none of which are there any traces of either the 
Llandeilo or Caradoc formations, or even of the Lower Llandovery rocks. 
Seeing that this boss of old slaty rock is directly upon the southern ex- 
tension of the range of the rocks forming the Malvern Hills, I would adduce 
this fact as a support to the conclusion I have already drawn — that the 
crystalline and schistose nucleus of those hills is of Cambrian age. 
The mass of the hilly ground, as exposed on the sides of the highroad 
and ranging across Huntley Hill, consists, first, of purplish and green shales 
and sandy beds passing into hard coarse grits, and yellowish, fine, mica- 
ceous sandstones, occasionally undulating, but on the whole dipping steadily 
to the W.N.W. These beds are chiefly characterized by Atrypa hemi- 
sphserica, Orthis calligramma, Ehynchonella decemplicata, with some Pen- 
tameri. They are surmounted by reddish and lightish grey sandstones 
and grits in which Pentameri abound, particularly P. liratus and P. lens, 
with Atrypa reticularis, Strophomena pecten, and S. arenacea ; and these 
Upper Llandovery strata, occupying the dome and summit of the hill, 
throw on certain grey flagstones to the west. Now most of the species 
in these higher beds belong unquestionably to the Wenlock group : and 
such ought to be the case ; for the upper flagstones in question pass up 
directly into strata constituting the true base of the Wenlock formation, as 
seen near Dursley Cross. 
Among these fossils are Petraia bina, Palasocyclus porpita, Halysites catenu- 
larius (the Chain-coral), Comulites, Encrinurus punctatus, Pentamerus oblongus, 
P. lens, Orthis calligramma and 0. hybrida, Strophomena funiculata and S. pecten,' 
Pterinea retroflexa, Mytihis mytilimeris, M. ovalis, Atrypa tumida, Ehyncho- 
nella borealis, Euomphalus fimatus, Bumastus Barriensis, Phacops caudatus, and 
Beyrichia tubercnlata or Kloedeni. 
On the other hand, the following species in these same beds and those of 
Huntley Hill never rise into the ^Venlock shale : viz. Atrypa hemisphasrica, Pen- 
tameri (two species), Ehynchonella furcata, Strophomena compressa, Tentacu- 
lites anglicus, Petraia subduplicata, and Lituites cornu-arietis. The last-men- 
tioned fossil occurs in rocks of this age at Presteign, and has, indeed, been 
previously described as a Caradoc or Bala form. 
h 2 
