Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 1.djvu/324

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the range; but that there is a great irregularity in the dip, even within a very limited space, § 58; that the strata nearest the unstratified rocks are in general vertical, §§ 47, 52, 60; or inclined at a considerable angle with a western dip, § 58; but that in some places they dip in an opposite direction, that is, towards the hill, § 56; and they are found in that position, at the highest point to which they rise upon the side of the range, § 59. I did not, in any situation, discover the actual contact of the stratified and unstratified rocks.


Of the Rocks of the Eastern side of the Malvern Hills.

§ 64. From the bottom of the hills to the banks of the river Severn, there is a wide extended plain, the uniform level of which is only interrupted in a few places by low wooded eminences.

§ 65. At the foot of the hills, immediately below the surface soil, there is a coarse gravel, consisting chiefly of angular fragments, which I found to be the same as the unstratified rocks of the range. These are mixed with a small quantity of red clay, that seems to be produced from the decomposition of the rock, many of the fragments being quite friable.

§ 66. The ground is quite unbroken in the whole extent of the plain, except where an occasional rising has been cut through for the sake of preserving the level of the road; and as the rock is not adapted to economical purposes, there is no quarry where it is exposed. But at the termination of that part of the plain which is opposite to the Worcestershire Beacon, the right bank of the Severn is nearly 70 feet in perpendicular height, so that a good section of the rock is exhibited in that place. It is a red argillaceous sandstone, with occasional beds or long patches of a white quartzose sandstone: it does not offer any signs of stratification, except that these white