4 ART. 2,-S. YOSHIVVARA: 



PART II. -Literature. 



Our first knowledge of the natural history c)f the Kiukiu Curve 

 is due to the expedition of an American sc^uadron in the years 185:?, 

 1853 and 1854, under the command of Commodore M. C. Perry. The 

 topographical survey was limited to Okinawa-jima, and the geological 

 descriptions were made chiefly l)y K. G. Jones (Report made to Com- 

 modore Perry of a Geological Exploration &c. of the Island of Great 



Lewchew. Xairativc of the E.xf. of an Am. Squadron to thß China 



Seas amlJapan <ùc. Vol. I j). 184 & Vol. II p. 53). He states: 

 " Commencing at the southern end, we have uniformly an nhuninous 

 rock, sometimes pretty compact, and sometimes running into shale; 

 from it comes all the clay or common soil of this ])art of Lew Chew. 

 This rock or clay is pierced and overlaid by limestone running X 

 about 60°E, and rising to pinnacled ridges, so as to deceive the eye at 

 the distance of only a few hundred feet. About 17 miles north of 

 Napha, a very coarse gneiss begins to make its appearance, and soon 

 becomes the prevalent rock, overhanging the sea-shore in bluffs of most 

 contorted stratification, or running out in great ledges of jagged forms. 

 The limestone is, however, seen yet occasionally, running slantingly 

 across the island, in broken ridges, as before. At the village of 

 Xacumma, on the west side of the island, say 4^ miles north of Xaplui, 

 we come to a small extent of granite hills, jMcrcing thnjugh the gneiss. 



It is the only granite that I have s(;en on tlie island 



l^eyond this, the gneiss begins to be mixed up witli strata of clay- 

 slate, to which it at length entirely gives place; and at l^'arnigi, 45 

 miles north of Xapha, on the promontoi-y of Fort ^Melville, we come 

 to a coarse conglomerate, which gives us the first pr<3mivse of a ])ossibi- 

 lityofcoal. The conglomerate soon ]);isses into n coarse, and then 

 into a finer sandstone. 'i'he slate and sandstone continue as we 



