6i2 E. C. ABENDANON 



sion. The very highest level which consists of very coarse-grained 

 and micaceous sandstone, however, again only occurs in the center of 

 the Red Basin. 



In resuming the above we must come to the important conclusion 

 that the area of Nan-t'ou must have played the part of a dividing 

 line ever since the Cambro-Ordovician, or perhaps still earlier ages, 

 until after the depositing of the K'ui-chou formation (Cretaceous 

 formation or later ?), During all that time, however, it twice gave up 

 this role : once during the Upper Carboniferous and for a second time, 

 let me say, during the upper K'ui-chou time. At last the broad 

 mighty anticline of Nan-t'ou was completely formed as we see it 

 nowadays, partly destroyed by erosion. 



The later formed folds of the Red Basin are therefore of younger 

 date, and although we might assum.e an earlier date for the beginning 

 of their growth, which a more careful research may possibly teach 

 us from the trend of the extension of the reddish-brown and the 

 slaty limestone formations, it must be inferred that their growth 

 proper must have taken place much faster than that of the Nan-t'ou 

 anticline. 



As I already remarked above, these NNE-SSW folds of the 

 Red Basin are bent up against the Tsin-ling-shan which I regarded 

 as the consequence of the Red Basin having been pressed to the 

 north. 



Finally, I again refer to the deviation of the anticline of Pa-tung 

 against that of Nan-t'ou, which fact agrees with the greater age and 

 capacity of resistance of the latter. 



And now I have still to consider the question of what were the 

 reasons which caused the hydrographic system that originates nowa- 

 days on the eastern slope of the highlands of Tibet south of the 

 Kuen-lun mountains, to force its way through the high mountain 

 ranges from K'ui-chou-fu to I-ch'ang. Until the present moment I 

 have not fully considered this point. In the literature that I have 

 consulted, on this subject I only find an explanation from Arthur 

 Kniep' which, however, seems so strange to me that I shall not discuss 

 it here. 



I "Der Yang-tzi-kiang als Weg zwischen den Westlichen und Ostlichen China," 

 Gerlands Beitrdge ziir Geophysik, Band VII, Heft I, pp. 22, 23. The explanation of 



