396 TRAXSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



of three knots. At this point there is a striking 

 pyramidal hill 600 feet high, its steepest side 

 descending in an almost vertical cliff sheer into 

 the deep water at the base. On the same side, to 

 the west, is an irregular cliff from 200 to 300 feet 

 high, mostly red sandstone. This formation extends 

 also some fifteen miles down the river. The summer 

 level of the river is usually about 35 feet above the 

 lowest winter level, but occasionally 40 feet, and even 

 more. 



In the east and south of China, according to 

 Kingsmill, * " The aqueous formations commence at 

 bottom with a series of coarse grits and sandstones, 

 overlain conformably by limestones and shales. 

 This formation extends from the east coast far 

 into Hux3eh, and apparently to the west Sz'chuen, 

 and from the south of Kwantung as far north as 

 the basin of the Yangtse, and probably far north 



into Mongolia Conformably over these 



grits is a great mass of limestone, containing near 

 its base, in the central provinces at least, a mass 

 of shales of no great thickness, producing coal and 

 iron." The lower bed of this formation, " when 

 exposed, is rendered very conspicuous from the 

 projecting nodules of black chert jutting out far 

 beyond the water -worn and often honey -combed 

 limestone matrix." 



The extraordinary extent to which this limestone 

 has been dissolved and washed away, leaving only 

 rugged pinnacles and fantastic rocks, forms a most 

 striking feature in the landscapes of many j)arts of 

 South China. Those in the gorges of the Si-Kiang 

 river are well illustrated in A. R. Colquhoun's 

 Across Chryse. In one valley in Kwangsi, from 

 ten to twelve miles in breadth, Bickmore counted 

 192 peaks, some as high as 1,200 feet. 



In the lower reaches of the Yangtse, the scenery 

 is tame and uninteresting, but on approaching 

 I'chang a striking change takes place. Ten miles 

 * Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, 1869, vol. xxv., p. 119. 



