J. S. Lee—An Outline of Chinese Geology. 327 
vicinity of Ta-h (Yun-nan), and in the “ Zone of Hou-kouang 
Flexure”’ (Kwang-si)!; the crystalline phyllite observed by 
Mr. V. K. Ting in the Tchu-ning district, Yun-nan. The quartz- 
rock exposed in the neighbourhood of Hong-kong, the schist that 
occurs In association with granite in the Isle of Hai-nan,? and finally 
the Kao-lang Series® of the Teng-yue district as mentioned by 
J.C. Brown, should perhaps be attributed to these Systems. 
As will be seen from the above sketch, China, particularly Northern 
China, is one of the few countries that offer good opportunity for 
the study of pre-Cambrian geology. Unfortunately, neither the 
scope of this paper nor the state of our present knowledge permit 
us to discuss the geological processes that were operative as the 
earliest geological era dawned in that part of the globe ; and any such 
attempt would inevitably involve us in the old conflicts between 
different schools of uniformitarians. That the basal stratum of 
the WutaiSystem was originally formed under water is, however, an 
unquestionable fact. The Wutai Sea, which presumably covered 
parts of north-east China during the early stage of the Wutai period, 
became fairly deep towards the middle of the same period, or the 
Nantai epoch. During the latter part of the Wutai period, or the 
Sitai epoch, a wide ocean extended over large areas of northern 
China, and received strikingly uniform clayey material from all the 
surrounding lands. Even the northern Tsing-ling area that had 
evidently stood above the Nantai water, was by this time submerged 
under the Sital sea; as evidence Richthofen and Willis have 
independently and definitely identified the chlorite-schist of the 
Sitai Series in the eastern and the middle Tsing-ling Range. 
An orogenic movement of far-reaching character took place in 
Northern China at the end of the Wutai period. The rocksformed 
during the Wutai period were thus severely deformed and 
dynamically metamorphosed; Large bosses of granite and syenite 
with their accompanying offshoots and differentiated dykes, 
were injected into the Tai-shan Complex and the Wutai strata, 
such as those found in eastern Shan-tung, north-eastern Shan-si, 
and western Hu-peh. The advanced phase of metamorphism 
usually exhibited by the Wutai rocks in contra-distinction to the 
slightly altered state of the overlying Nankou or Huto Formation, 
speaks for the intensity of the stress and strain that the Wutai rocks 
must have gone through before the formation of the Nankou rocks 
had begun. The principal attack of the movement seems to have 
come from the south-east, for it has impressed a north-easterly 
strike on the rocks affected. 
As this great disturbance gradually died out, the area of Shan-si 
and Chi-li began to subside. The Nankou period thus set in. If 
1 Leclere, op. cit., pp. 21-2. 
*‘Madrolle, ‘‘ Etude sur Visle d’Hainan’ : Bull. Soc. geogr. Paris, sér. vu, 
vol. xix, pp. 187-228. 
* Record Geol. Surv. India, vol. xliii, p. 188, pl. iii. 
