14 RESEARCH IN CHINA. 



whom we must chiefly depend. The citations from Russian geologists, 

 given by Suess,* are very valuable. 



I take up the occurrences of rocks which may be related to the Wu-t'ai 

 and Nan-k'ou systems, in geographical sequence, proceeding from the 

 nearer to the more remote. The typical terranes of the pre-Sinian sedi- 

 ments in North China are found in the Wu-t'ai-shan, longitude 114+, 

 latitude 39, northern Shan-si, and in the Nan-k'ou range, longitude 

 ii6, latitude 41 , northwestern Chi'-li. They have been described in 

 the preceding section. 



In central and southern Shan-si, quartzites and schists of typical 

 pre-Sinian character occur in the mountains northwest of Fon-ch6u-fu, 

 longitude 112, latitude 37 + , in the Ho-shan, longitude 112, latitude 36 

 to 37, and in the Fong-huang-shan, longitude 110 to 111, latitude 35. 

 They appear on anticlines or normal fault-scarps, below Sinian strata. Our 

 information regarding them is limited, however, to identification of float 

 brought down by streams and distant observations of their characteristic 

 outcrops beneath limestone scarps, as neither von Richthofen nor any of his 

 successors has seen them at close range in place. Our notes are given in 

 volume I, page 171 et seq. 



A great mountain chain, the Ts'in-ling-shan, stretches from east to west 

 across Central China, between the meridians of 104 and 114 cast, about 

 700 kilometers southwest of the Wu-t'ai-shan. This barrier range, which 

 is regarded as the eastern continuation of the Kwen-lung, consists chiefly 

 of Paleozoic and Mesozoic strata. It is the northern margin of a geologic 

 province that is distinguished by metamorphism of the Permo-Mesozoic and 

 older sediments, which in northern China are unaltered. In this respect 

 it bears to that region much the same relation as that which the Sierra 

 Nevada of California has to the Great Basin province of Nevada and Utah. 

 Within this metamorphic province there occur quartzites, phyllites, and 

 even schists, which are in fact of Sinian age or younger, but which have 

 pre-Sinian aspects. We are therefore obliged to be cautious in making 

 correlations on a lithologic basis. 



The eastern end of the Ts'in-ling-shan is described by von Richthofen 

 under the name Fu-niu-shan, and a northeastern outlier of imposing alti- 

 tude is the Sung-shan. These heights are in Ho-nan, south of the Huang-ho, 

 longitude 113 east, latitude 34. In describing the sections which he 

 saw in the Fu-niu-shan, f von Richthofen mentions chloritic schists and 

 crystalline limestone ; less distinctly crystalline and gray-green slates 

 (Thonschiefer) and slaty quartzites; and these strata, which are steeply 

 folded, are unconformably overlain by coarse conglomerate and sandstone 



* Face de la Terre, vol. ni. 

 tChina, vol. n, pp. 496-497. 





