APPENDIX G 87 



Baron von Bichthofen has shown that in China an enormous 

 accumulation of a Loess-like deposit has been formed by dust 

 storms caused by devastating winds, and that this deposit extends 

 from the sea-level up to heights of 8,000 ft. or more, whilst it 

 attains in places a thickness of 1,000 to 1,500 ft. ; whereas the 

 Loess in Europe is clearly water-deposited and is rarely more than 

 100 ft. thick. The skeletons also of the animals buried by the 

 dust storms must be in most cases preserved entire and not in the 

 fragmentary state in which they occur in the Loess of Europe. 



APPENDIX G. 



P. 43. The discovery is not altogether new, for in five 

 analyses of the Belgian Loess by Kane in 1846, a small pro- 

 portion of chloride of sodium was found in each case. Payen 

 also has shown that one of the soils in Russia (? Loess) contains 

 a notable proportion (1*21 per cent.) of alkaline chlorides; and 

 in an analysis by the same chemist quoted by Bischof of the 

 Black Earth of Southern Russia, which is possibly only a variety 

 of Loess, there appears as much as 1-32 per cent, of an alkaline 

 chloride. But in all these cases the geological particulars are 

 insufficient to determine the exact position of the bed analysed. 



The statements, however, of M. Stainier give definite in- 

 formation, both as to the localities where the specimens were 

 obtained and the fossils, and it will be easy to determine 

 the exact division of the Loess at those places. The bed is 

 evidently one of an argillaceous character, as it contains 37'71 

 per cent, of clay, and is so impermeable that the rain-water runs 

 off its surface, so that the salt is not washed out of it as would 

 be the case in other more permeable beds of Loess. Four analyses 

 of the Loess in the Valley of the Rhine (Bischof) show a mean of 

 only 10-17 per cent, of clay. This inquiry should be extended to 

 the great deposit of high-level Loess in Central Europe. 



