NATURE 



241 



THURSDAY, JULY 13, i£ 



THE GEOLOGY OF CHINA 



China: Ergebnisse eigener Rcisen und darauf gcgriindeter 

 Studien. Von F. Freiherrn von Richthofen. Zweiter 

 Band. (Berlin : Reimer, 1882.) 



THE second volume of Baron Ferdinand von Richt- 

 hofen's great work on China has just appeared. 

 Five years have elapsed since the publication of the first 

 volume, and two additional volumes are promised to com- 

 plete the work, which when its maps and full index have 

 been supplied, will be a great storehouse of observations 

 in almost every department of Geology. Few geologists 

 have enjoyed such opportunities of extended travel as 

 have fallen to the Baron's lot. Already familiar with the 

 rocks of a large part of Central Europe, he carried his 

 knowledge and experience to the far west of North 

 America, and did admirable service theie as a pioneer to 

 those who have [come after him. Subsequently he set 

 himself to explore the geological structure of the Chinese 

 Empire, and he is now laboriously collecting and arrang- 

 ing the vast materials which he amassed in his wanderings 

 through the almost unknown geological formations of that 

 wide region. 



His chapters are arranged in the chronological order 

 of his journeys, and bristle with local details, which, how- 

 ever, are illustrated and made more readily intelligible by 

 numerous sections interspersed through the text, as well 

 as by sheets of coloured profiles. One of the most valu- 

 able features of the book for general readers consists in 

 the clear summaries of geological data which for each 

 great district are given in larger type. From these the 

 salient points in the geological structure of the different 

 provinces and their bearing on systematic geology may be 

 gathered by those who have not time to read the volu- 

 minous narrative of details. The author confers a fur- 

 ther and most welcome boon upon students by appending 

 to his volume a final chapter of " Geological Results," 

 wherein he gives a succinct but clear and interesting out- 

 line of what he conceives to have been the leading events 

 in the geological history of China. As this outline is 

 accompanied throughout by references to the pages where 

 each subject will be found treated in ample detail, the 

 reader sees at once where to turn for fuller informa- 

 tion. 



Baron von Richthofen divides the story of the geologi- 

 cal evolution of China into three chief periods. (1) That 

 of the formation and plication of the Archaean rocks ; (2) 

 that of the Palaeozoic rocks to the end of the Carboniferous 

 epoch ; and (3) a vast continental period lasting from 

 Pateozoic time up to the present day. The Archaean 

 gneiss, in highly inclined beds with a persistent N.N.W. 

 strike, is separated from all younger formations by a great 

 abrasion and discordance. It is succeeded by a younger 

 gneiss and by mica-schist, hornblende-schist, quartzite, 

 marble, coarse conglomerate, sandstone, and green slates, 

 some of which can be seen to lie unconformably upon it. 

 These various crystalline masses underwent enormous pli- 

 cation and subsequent denudation before the deposition 

 of the Palaeozoic series upon them. They are succeeded 

 Vol. xxvi. — No. 663 



by a vast mass of sedimentary material (12,000 to 20,000 

 feet thick) constituting the "Sinesian Series," in which 

 arenaceous rocks predominate in the lower and calcareous 

 in the upper portions. The occurrence of some forms of 

 Dikclloccphalus and Conocephalus and numerous brachio- 

 pods at the top of this series indicates that in part it re- 

 presents the period of the Primordial Fauna of Europe, 

 and the Potsdam Sandstone of North America. These 

 interesting and important fossils will be fully described in 

 a future volume of the work. It would appear that the 

 denudation of the elevated area of crystalline rocks con- 

 tinued through the Silurian and Devonian periods. In 

 the latter period, or at its close, considerable terrestrial 

 disturbance took place, whereby a general upheaval of the 

 whole area was effected, with plication and fracture in 

 certain tracts. Next came the deposit of the Carboni- 

 ferous Limestone and of the coal-bearing sandstones 

 shales and marine calcareous bands (with Productus semi- 

 rctuulatus) which overlie the limestone. The existence 

 of coal in China was known many years ago, and English 

 steamboats have been in the habit of coaling in Chinese 

 ports from the produce of native workings. But the 

 vast extent and geological relations of the coal-fields have 

 first been made known by our author. One of his maps 

 gives a graphic representation of the enormous area of 

 undisturbed country over which the nearly horizontal 

 coal-bearing measures extend. There are at least two 

 series of coals, one belonging to the true Carboniferous 

 and the other to the Jurassic system. 



The close of the Carboniferous period was marked by 

 an equable uprise of the land towards the north and pli- 

 cation in the south, with the outbreak of volcanic erup- 

 tions. The result of these movements was the final and 

 persistent transformation of the greater part of China 

 into land. Among the oldest deposits of that ancient 

 terrestrial area are the coal-bearing beds in the northern 

 tracts of Chili and Shansi, which contain land-plants 

 referable to the age of the Upper Jurassic rocks of 

 Europe, and the coal-basin of Ta-tung-fu, the flora of 

 which appears to be of Lower Jurassic age. Among the 

 events of Mesozoic time was the outburst of porphyritic 

 eruptive rocks, with which are associated masses of 

 breccia and tuff. 



Some of the most generally interesting portions of the 

 volume are those that deal with the origin of the present 

 surface-features and superficial deposits of China. The 

 author traces the history of the vast depression forming 

 the great plain or basin of China, and of the volcanic 

 activity which took place there and in other parts of the 

 empire during Tertiary and Post-Tertiary time. Those 

 who have seen his first volume will be prepared to find 

 that he ascribes much of the existing configuration of 

 the Chinese Empire to prolonged denudation since the 

 Post-Carboniferous elevation of the region into dry land. 

 He distinguishes three great climatic periods during 

 which the denudation proceeded :— (1) The period of 

 Erosion, in which the existing contours of the firm sur- 

 face under the Loess were carved out ; (2) the period of 

 the Steppes, when the peculiar conditions of the Central 

 Asiatic steppes spread over Northern China ; and (3) the 

 period of the Loess, or the duration of the existing 

 meteorological conditions, whereby the former steppe- 

 land is desiccated and converted into loess-land. He 



