GEOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN EASTERN ASIA. 



By BaiIvEy Wilus. 



Under Grant No. 72 and its continuation, No. 116, plans for 

 geological research in eastern Asia were perfected and carried to 

 completion during 1903- 1904. The original suggestions for this re- 

 search were made by Mr. Walcott, with a special view to the inves- 

 tigation of Cambrian faunas and search for fossils in pre-Cambrian 

 rocks in localities which were indicated by the work of Baron von 

 Richthofen. The research was not, however, limited to this spe- 

 cific object, but was stated to have for its broader purpose the com- 

 parative study of the geology of North America and Asia. In its 

 execution the special investigation of the Cambrian faunas was 

 given precedence, but work was extended to other branches of the 

 science in the effort to accomplish the more general result in compara- 

 tive geology. Mr. Arthur C. Spencer, to whom the grant was 

 originall)' intrusted, was unable for personal reasons to carry out 

 its provisions, and T was authorized in the spring of 1903 to proceed 

 with the investigation. I selected as my associates Mr. Eliot Black- 

 welder, paleontologist, and later Mr. R. H. Sargent, topographer. 

 Mr. Blackwelder and I left the United States in July, 1903, and, 

 proceeding by way of Europe and the Siberian Railway, arrived 

 at Peking September 20. The months of October and November 

 were spent in making topographical and geological surveys in the 

 province of Shantung, in areas selected on account of the extensive 

 exposures of fossiliferous Cambrian strata. Upon our return to 

 Tientsin in December, we were joined by Mr. Sargent. During 

 January and February surveys for topography and geology were 

 executed along a route 250 miles in length, from Pao-ting fu, in the 

 province of Chihli, westward to the Wutai-shan, the highest moun- 

 tains in northern Shansi, and thence southward to Tai-yuan fu. The 

 greater part of March was employed in perfecting the work accom- 

 plished and in a journey of eighteen days from Tai-yuan fu, Shansi, 

 to Hsi-an fu, Shensi. As this journey was necessarily made by a 

 route previously traversed by Baron von Richthofen and other 

 travelers, no surveys were made beyond the general observations 

 consistent with rapid progress. From Hsi-an futhe party surveyed 

 a route, which in great part had not previously been followed by 

 foreigners, southward across the mountainous region which extends 

 to and beyond the Yangtse. This part of the journey falls into 



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