15 
THE OLDEST MOUNTAIN IN ENGLAND. 
By 0 . Callaway, M.A., D.Sc. Lond., F.G.S. 
I N determining the antiquity of a mountain, we have to ascer- 
tain either the period at which the mineral matter of which 
it is composed was brought together, or the epoch in which the 
mass was lifted above the surface of the ocean. The Swiss 
Alps, for example, are largely composed of strata deposited in 
several epochs from the Carboniferous upwards, but these mineral 
masses were not upheaved until the comparatively recent period 
of the Eocene Tertiary. Or to take an illustration nearer at 
hand. The Cotswold Hills are mainly composed of oolitic lime- 
stone, which was once a muddy sea-bottom of the Jurassic 
epoch, but as a mountain range they did not exist before Tertiary 
times. If we regard the period of their origin as a mineral 
mass, we shall call them Jurassic; but if we consider only the 
period of their elevation, we shall describe them as Tertiary. 
If we regard only the epoch of the mineral origin of a moun- 
tain, the Malvern Hills have probably the best claim to priority. 
They consist of schistose rocks, which were deposited as sand 
and clay in an ocean which probably dates as far back from the 
Cambrian epoch as the Cambrian epoch dates from ours. 
Whether or not we accept Dr, Holl’s determination of their 
Laurentian age, it is certain that the Cambrian strata, the 
oldest rocks in Britain which contain the remains of organic 
life, succeeded them at an immense interval of time. It is 
possible that some portion of the Malvern ridge stood above the 
waves in Pre-Cambrian times, but proof of such elevation is 
wanting. It is clear, however, that the Malvern Hills existed 
in part before the close of the Cambrian epoch. For details on 
these points reference may be made to Phillips’s “ Geology of 
Oxford and the Valiev of the Thames,” and to a paper by Dr. 
Holl in the u Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.,” Feb., I860. 
The hill for which is claimed the title of “Father of English 
mountains” is the Wrekin, which stood above the ocean in Pre- 
Cambrian times, and had attained the dignity of a mountain 
