Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 1.djvu/330

 be a grauwacke-slate, as that name has so very wide a range; but it is in general much less indurated than any rock I have yet seen, to which that denomination has been applied.

Whether U am correct or not in the application I have made of the Wernerian names to the individual rocks of the Malvern district, if we consider their geological arrangement, we shall find that they exhibit appearances very inconsistent with the Wernerian system of Geognosy.

The most remarkable feature of this district is the very great contrast between the two sides of the range. On the eastern side, a level plain, extending in many miles; on the western, a constant succession of hills. Now if the unstratified rocks in the centre are to be considered as the oldest, and if the stratified rocks have been deposited upon them, how does it happen that they are only found on one side, that not a vestige of the strata that occur on the western side is to be met with on the eastern, and vice versa, that the red sandstone of the eastern side is not to be found on the western; at least for three or four miles all along the range, beyond which my observations did not extend. Besides, if the stratified rocks were deposited on the unstratified central rocks, we should expect to find their bearing always parallel to the direction of the range, and their dip uniformly towards the west, corresponding with the slope of the hill, supposing, what is maintained in the Wernerian system, the possibility of a stratified rock being deposited in any other than a horizontal or nearly horizontal position. We should also expect, in so short an extent as that of the Malvern range, that the same kind of stratified rock would always be found next to the unstratified. But I have shewn that neither of these things occur. It is true that the direction of the strata is in general parallel to that of the range; but there are some remarkable exceptions to it, as in the limestone