Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 1.djvu/296

 seventy feet in perpendicular height, this added to the above elevation of the Worcestershire Beacon, very nearly corresponds with the statement in Nash's History of Worcestershire.

§ 7. The whole range from one end to the other is, as I have already mentioned, almost entirely covered with vegetation. It is only in a few places that the rock projects above the surface; this is more particularly the case at the northern extremity, and there, principally on the eastern side; the western slope hardly offers in any part of it any thing more than a very line close turf: even the rocks that do appear are in general thickly coated with lichens, and decomposed at the surface; so that it is difficult without a very close examination, to obtain an accurate knowledge of the mineral structure of these hills. There are however several quarries worked in different places and at different heights, and besides the opportunities which these afford to the mineralogist, there are two carriage roads that cross the hill, in the making of which, the rock has been in many places laid bare. The most northern of these, rises gradually along the side to within thirty or forty feet of the summit, where a cut has been made through the hill from east to west, thus exhibiting a transverse section of the rocks: this chasm is known by the name of the Wych. The other, is the turnpike-road from Worcester to Ledbury; it crosses the hill immediately above Little Malvern, passing along the side of the Herefordshire Beacon, and in the making of this road the rock has been in different places cut down to the depth of twenty or thirty feet.

§ 8. Besides the obstacles to accurate observation, that I have already mentioned, there is another difficulty which it requires some patience to overcome. The greatest proportion of the rocks are in that state which the quarries term rotten; which means, that when a block of the stone is struck with the hammer, it breaks into a number of small irregular fragments, frequently not exceeding the