MIDDLE YANG-TZI-KIANG GORGES 6oi 



Near Lao-K'ui-ch6u, a deserted place, on the right bank, we are in 

 the syncHnal area and then soon follow 45° WNW-dipping layers, 

 and the river again enters into the levels of the K'ui-chdu formation, 

 which here, however, do not contain so many sandstone beds as in the 

 western limb of the syncline. 



We must therefore remark the thinning out of the hard sandstone 

 beds of the K^ ui-chou formation from west to east. And they no longer 

 crop out so typically from the river banks as above K'ui-chou-hien. 

 Under the K'ui-chdu formation the river penetrates the slaty sand- 



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cli'ovL -Ivierv. 



Ita rd. sajidstoJhe ■ laxjer of trtc 



J _j., , ^\^_^^ ^^-^ ^~^ K'lU. - cKiOu. foivii atioTt, . 



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Fig. 7 



stone layers of the sandstone formation, which has here greatly dimin- 

 ished in thickness and does not contain any coal measures. 



We must observe the thinning out of the coal layers in the sandstone 

 formation, and the thinning out of the formation itself toward the east. 



Directly beneath the sandstone lies the gorges-limestone forma- 

 tion, which, rising up in an anticlinal limb, has again been transected 

 by the Yang-tzi in a magnificent and grand gorge. 



We therefore observe that the reddish-brown formation is also 

 thinned out toward the east. 



In the Mi-t'an gorge the Yang-tzi cuts across 30° to 40° WNW- 

 dipping layers of the gorges-limestone formation. The massive moun- 

 tains rise to more than double the height of these in the preced- 

 ing sandstone area of Hsiang-chi. Only there, where a softer slaty 

 layer complex occurs in this formation, we find a small valley on both 

 sides of the river. This same layer complex, we shall see, plays an 

 important part in the direction of the course of the Yang-tzi in the 



