6o8 E. C. ABENDANON 



2. The signification of the antichne of Nan-t'ou. 



3. The causes which have enabled the Yang-tzi to cut through 

 these high-hmit ranges. 



Concerning the first point I must remark that the folds here are 

 not sinial folds taken in the sense von Richthofen attached to old 

 Paleozoic ENE-WNW trending folds, in North China (Liau-tung). 

 The folds' of the Red Basin of Ssi-ch'uan are of much younger date, 

 in fact, younger than the K'ui-chou formation, which has been plicated 

 together with the lower layers. The almost equatorial trend in the 

 easterly border area of the Red Basin I have already explained 

 through the deviation of these later folds against the so much older 

 folded mountain ranges of the Tsin-ling-shan and Kuen-lun. In the 

 Monatsberichte of the German Geological Society, No. 9, p. 202, I 

 wrote : 



We can therefore describe that part of the earth's crust in southwest China 

 in the followino; manner: Firstly, in the south a widely extending upheaval of 

 the earth's crust in broad, flat folds; then, toward the north an increase in 

 height and number of the regular and parallel folds; finally, the deviation of 

 the whole series from the NNE-SSW direction, to an ENE-WSW and EW one, 

 in consequence of the "Anschaarung" of this system of folds against the equa- 

 torially trending Kuen-lun or Tsin-ling-shan system. 



Formerly I wrote concerning this: 



It is quite possible that this pressure will have left visible traces north of 

 Wu-shan and K'ui-chou-fu in this old mountain range (the Tsin-ling-shan).^ 



As a fact Willis, who passed through the land north of Wu-shan, 

 along the Ta-ning-ho, gives, in his oft-mentioned work (pp. 288, 289) 

 a section, which shows that the folds, from S to N, to the north of the 

 Yang-tzi, become more and more sharp and high, while, finally, a 

 little to the north of Sli-kia-pa, 65 km north of Wu-shan, he depicts 

 a great overthrust, about which he writes (p. 291) : 



Northward from Sii-kia-pa, there is, however, a complexity of structure 

 which we did not fully understand in the field, but now interpret as an over- 

 thrust fault. 



1 Whether these folds are younger or older than those of the Jura mountains 

 cannot be said for the present moment; but we may point out that they very materially 

 output the latter as concerns regularity and simplicity. 



2 Geologic du Bassin Rouge, p. i8i. 



