264 J. 8S. Lee—An Outline of Chinese Geology. 
“step” by which Mongolia descends to Manchuria. They curiously 
reveal a harmonious relation, and may indeed be genetically related. 
In the vast area of South-Hastern China the rocks are generally 
folded in a north-easterly direction, reminding us of the structure 
of the north-eastern part of the country. What specially calls for 
our attention in this area is the zone of igneous activity which 
defines the south-eastern coast, and which is singularly parallel to 
the hypothetical line of disturbance along the eastern edge of the 
Kwei-chou Plateau as already discussed. 
THe FUNDAMENTAL COMPLEX. 
Rocks of extremely complex composition and structure are fre- 
quently reported to occur in Northern China. They form the greatest 
part of the Liao-tung and the Shan-tung peninsulas. Richthofen 
maps them as the “old gneiss and gneiss-granite’’, and regards 
them as Archean.t Rinne? and Lorenz, however, consider much 
of the so-called Archean gneiss in Shan-tung as Algonkian granite. 
In other provinces of North-Hastern China schists and gneiss of very 
ancient type are often exposed in the mountain ranges. They are 
found, for instance, in the mountains to the west of the Liao-ho 
valley and in the neighbourhood of the great lava field of southern 
Mongolia. From the vicinity of the Wutai-shan (to the north of 
lat. 39° N., between longs. 112° 30’ H. and 114° E.) they dive towards 
the south, and reappear in the lower parts of the mountain ranges’ 
that stand on both sides of the Fen-ho valley. 
Further south a belt of Archean gneiss runs along the northern 
foot of the Tsing-ling Range, and spreads itself out towards the east, 
namely, in the provinces of Ho-nan, northern An-hwei, and north- 
eastern Hu-peh. In these places the Archean gneiss and schists 
sometimes rise as rugged mountains, and sometimes form plains 
partially covered by the ‘‘ Hwang-tu”’ or the Loess. 
Inthe north-western part of the Nan-shan Ranges, namely, in the 
principal chains lying to the south-west of the Da-ssue-shan or the 
Great-snow-mountain (extending from about lat. 40° N., long. 
96° EK. to the south-east), such as the Yema-shan, the Humboldt 
Mountain, and the South Tsaidam-ula or the Muschketov Range, 
Obrutchov found ancient gneiss and crystalline schists occurring 
in association with a variety of intrusive masses. The former class 
of rocks probably includes Archean representatives. 
The petrological characters of the above-mentioned Archean 
rocks are so widely different from one another that a generalized 
description is hardly of any use. Suffice to say that they are not, as 
a whole, petrologically unlike the Lewisian of Great Britain and the 
Fundamental Complex of North America. Willis and Blackwelder, 
therefore, term the gneiss and schists that they observed in the 
1 China, vol. 11, p. 706. 
2 “‘ Beitrag zur Gesteinskunde des Kiau-tschou’’: Zeits. d. d. geol. Ges., 
Aufsatze, pp. 122-67. 
