I. Introduction. In a short communication which was read at the last meeting of the British Association (1863), “On the Geology of the Malvern Hills,” I expressed my belief that the rocks which had hitherto been treated of as syenite, and supposed to form the axis of the hills, were in reality of metamorphic origin, and belonged to the Pre-Cambrian, Azoic, or Laurentian age†. In that communication I also intimated that I should enter into further details at no distant date; but the completion of the paper has been delayed by circumstances which were unavoidable. In the meantime, I have been enabled to clear up certain points on which I was not then altogether satisfied, and to avail myself of some recent researches of my friend the Rev. J. H. Timins, of West Malling, into the chemical constitution of many of these rocks, which have a bearing upon the subject of this memoir, as will be seen in the sequel*. The objects of this communication are the following:—(1)to discuss the structure and origin of the crystalline rocks of the Malvern Hills; (2) to give the result of an examination of the super-imposed Palæozoic strata immediately adjacent; and (3) to endeavour to show the chronological relationship of the several events in their geological history. II. Metamorphic Rocks. It will be preferable to commence the description at the southern extremity of the hills, where older deposits are seen resting upon the metamorphic rocks than in the northern part of the chain. 1.