58 RESEARCH IN CHINA. 



Von Rich thof en's section includes Silurian (Gothlandian) strata as 

 determined by abundant fossils (beds i and K) and a very meager repre- 

 sentation of the Devonian (bed g). The expedition of 1903-04 found no 

 certainly Silurian fossils in the Ta-ning-ho section. lyoczy, who traversed 

 the Kia-ling-kiang just west of von Richthofen's locality, passed in a 

 boat and did not observe the Silurian; but at a point somewhat further 

 north he obtained a definite observation of the occurrence of the Devonian. 

 The locality is in the western Ts'in-ling-shan, in the province of Shen-si, 

 at the village of Paj-suj-kiang (Pai-shui-kiang, White Water River) . Loczy 

 described the occurrence as follows:* 



When we had left a steep terrace [Talstufe] our way entered a narrow ravine, in which 

 steep limestone walls rose on both sides almost to Paj-suj-kiang. In this gorge the limon- 

 itic sandstone, and the clay shale which is associated with it, is repeatedly exposed wherever 

 the arches of the anticlines have been cut through by the action of the river. Above the 

 sandstone occur well-bedded, thin, limestone layers, and above these the thick beds of the 

 bituminous limestone extend to the high ragged edge of the ravine. 



In the marly strata between the dark-blue limestone layers occur numerous petrified 

 remains of shellfish, such as corals, crinoids, brachiopods, fenestellas, and also great heaps 

 of shells of a large form of mussel. The cross-sections of the latter remind one strikingly 

 of those of megalodonts. In the material which was here collected the following species 

 were determinable : 



Spirifer, cf. canalifera Valen. Cypricardinia lamellosa Phill. 



Dielasma (cf. sacculus) minimum n. sp. Favosites cervicornis Goldf. 



Pentamerus brevirostris Phill. Stromatopora sp. indet. 

 Megalodon (sp.) v. Pachydomus? sp. 



In Europe these forms are characteristic of the Devonian system. The thin Devonian 

 strata pass upward gradually into a thick bituminous limestone; in consequence of this 

 relation, because of its extraordinary thickness, and also on account of its analogy with 

 the strata which von Richthofen described and definitely determined to be Carboniferous, 

 I place this limestone formation in that system. We may therefore conclude, from the 

 stratigraphic relations as well as from the conditions of deposition, that, on the southern 

 slope of the Shi'-ta-shan, the Devonian and Carboniferous occur in an unbroken, continuous 

 sequence. 



Our route extended about 14 kilometers upon the strata which I have just described; 

 below occurred the carbonaceous sandstone and clay shale; above that bluish limestone 

 interbedded with black chert, in the marly layers of which occurred the Devonian fossils, 

 and finally uppermost came the Carboniferous limestone, which, with a thickness of about 

 400 meters, extended to the tower-like pinnacled divides and ragged cavernous plateau of 

 the Shi-ta-shan. 



In the paragraphs preceding the above-quoted description, 

 gives an account of the rocks immediately below those containing the 

 Devonian fossils, describing them as gray ferruginous sandstones, contain- 

 ing pyrite and brown iron oxide with interbedded threads of coal. This 



* Reise des Grafen Szchenyi, vol. i, p. 433. 



