conglomerate, of a dark brown colour, composed of felspar, steatite, and calcareous spar, united by a ferro-argillaceous base, and containing some minute specks of a greenish yellow substance, in diverging fibres, which is probably actynolite. The rock is attracted by the magnet.
$ 38. In a lane at the foot of the Herefordshire Beacon, on the western side, I found a vein of red hematite, passing through a rock consisting of red felspar and quartz, partially decomposed.
§ 39. The next height to the south of the Herefordshire Beacon is Swinnit-hill.[1] The upper part of this hill is composed of a granite, that is more distinctly characterized as such, than the greater part of those found in the Malvern Hills: still, however, it is very different from an Alpine granite, the mica is in minute specks, and there is also a very small proportion of it. In the lower part of the eastern side of the hill, the rock has been excavated to a considerable depth at Castle Morton quarry; it consists chiefly of hornblende, with a little reddish white felspar and quartz, and in some places it contains pyrites. Among a heap of large blocks, that had been recently got out of the quarry, I observed this rock penetrated in many places by veins consisting of flesh red felspar and grey quartz: when the vein was narrow, these were the only ingredients; but where it became wider, silvery mica also formed a component part of it, and in some places it was accompanied with steatite. I was prevented from examining the spot from whence these blocks were taken, in consequence of a heavy rain having, a few days before, washed down so much earth from the upper part of the hill, as to fill up the place where the quarries had been at work.
§ 40. About a quarter of a mile further south, I found a schistose
- ↑ I write the name of this hill, as it is pronounced by the country people. I have not seen it in any map, nor in the county history.
