ACADEMY OP SCIENCES. 135 



To avoid confusion, the surveyors will designate this mountain on 

 their maps as Mount Stanford, in honor of the President of the 

 Central Pacific Railroad ; the one originally named Castle Peak by 

 Mr. Goddard will be called " Tower Peak ;" and the third, or the 

 least castellated of the three, will necessarily have to retain its 

 present name of " Castle Peak," as it is already widely and 

 exclusively known by that designation. 



The exact altitudes of the various points mentioned have not yet 

 been calculated, as the observations have not all come to hand, and 

 the figures given at present are only approximate. 



Prof. Whitney read some extracts from letters just received by 

 him from Baron Richthofen, giving an account of a recent discovery 

 made in the progress of the geological reconnoisance of China, 

 which the Baron is carrying on under the auspices of the Shanghai 

 Chamber of Commerce. The extract read related to the immense 

 development of the loess in the northern part of the Chinese 

 Empire, and to the mode of the occurrence of the bituminous and 

 anthracite coals in Southern Shansi. 



The loess is one of the most important formations of Northern 

 China. When not removed by denudation, it spreads in a continuous 

 sheet of great thickness over the whole surface of the country, 

 rising on the high plateaux, or spreading over the entire area of the 

 Northern Provinces of China, and probably extending far into 

 Central Asia. It is very porous, and frequently intersected by 

 small ramified tubes, Avhich are evidently the spaces previously 

 occupied by rootlets, their walls being usually covered with a thin 

 layer of calcareous matter. Everywhere and throughout the whole 

 mass of the formation is an abundance of perfectly preserved shells 

 of the genus Helix, and in many cases the bones of land animals 

 are found. This loess is nowhere stratified, and in places it 

 attains the enormous thickness of 1,500 feet. 



The problem of its origin is an extremely difficult one, and it is 

 evidently a subgerial deposit, and one without a parallel in any other 

 part of the world, as far as yet observed. Prof. Whitney remarked, 

 in commenting on these facts, that a most careful and detailed series 

 of observations on this formation would be required, in order to be 

 able to arrive at anything like a satisfactory conclusion in regard to 

 the geological condition under which it has been deposited. 



