DEVONIAN OF THE SOUTH. 65 



Ni-tou, a short distance to the northwest, lies in a synclinal basin of early 

 Paleozoic strata overlain by Rhaetic and Jurassic and flanked by ranges 

 of granite and quartz porphyry. In this vicinity, at the village of Hua- 

 ling-pu, Loczy observed closely folded shales and dark, bituminous, earthy 

 limestones, from which he collected a number of fossils of middle Devonian 

 age.* The fossiliferous limestone beds were thin and apparently under- 

 lain by sandy shales and gray, half-crystalline limestones, and the presence 

 of Silurian strata beneath the Devonian was observed. 



While the fossils collected in this locality leave no question of the pres- 

 ence of Devonian strata, the relations which appear to be implied in the 

 accompanying diagrams, between the Paleozoics and the adjacent granites, 

 are not at all clear. One would infer that the granites were pre-Paleozoic; 

 on the other hand the descriptions suggest that they may be intrusives 

 and of post-Paleozoic age. 



In northern Yun-nan, in latitude 28, longitude 104, is the celebrated 

 locality of Ta-kuan-ting, from which von Richthofen obtained the rich 

 collection described by Kayser.f Von Richthofen did not himself collect 

 the fossils, but purchased them in the province of Ss'i-ch'uan, whither they 

 are brought in great numbers as medicinal charms. 



I/a Touche and Datta determined the presence of Devonian strata in 

 the northern Shan states, where they found a full and characteristic fauna. 

 The presence of the Silurian rocks is probable, but not determined. J 



The most recent and complete account of the Ordovician and Silurian 

 and Devonian in the Himalayas is that given by Hayden. He describes 

 650 feet, 195 meters, of strata, comprising shaly sandstones at the base 

 (150 feet, 45 meters), shaly, dolomitic, and siliceous limestones (420 feet, 125 

 meters) among which six divisions are distinguished, and reddish quartz- 

 ite (80 feet, 24 meters); the last is followed by the unfossiliferous white 

 Muth quartzite. The strata have yielded fossils ranging from Caradoc to 

 Llandovery or Wenlock, and therefore corresponding in general position 

 with the beds of middle Ordovician and Silurian age in central China. The 

 white Muth quartzite passes upward into siliceous limestone, which is con- 

 sidered to be Devonian, and Devonian strata are probably present through- 

 out the Himalayas, although of very moderate thickness. The western 

 extension of this series along the ranges of western Asia to the Caucasus is 

 not clearly made out, but is most probable. || 



*Reise des Grafen Szechenyi, vol. I, p. 682. 



t China, vol. iv, p. 76. 



JNoetling: Gen. Report G. S. I., 1900. 



Memoirs G. S. I., vol. xxxvi, part I, pp. 24-27, 1904. 



II De Lapparent: Traite de Gdologie, 1906, vol. n, p. 812. 



