J. S. Lee—An Outline of Chinese Geology. 377 
part of the Shansian System marges into a yellowish or reddish 
sandstone of considerable thickness, moderately coarse in texture 
and barren of fossils. This sandstone is often termed the “ Plateau 
Sandstone” or the “‘Supracoal Sandstone ”’. 
The Shansian System is divisible in the province of Shan-si into 
two series in the following descending order :— 
6. Productive Measures. Variegated sandstones with subordinate 
sandy shale containing anthracite seams of a thickness varying 
from 12 to 30 feet. 
a. Taiyang Series.1 Alternating beds of limestones, ironstone-bearing 
shales, sandstones, and fire-clays with occasional seams of coal ; 
capped in places by a highly fossiliferous black Fusulinidea 
limestone which often contains flints. 
In the other provinces of northern China the general lithological 
character of the Shansian Formation is much the same. The 
Fusulinidea of the flinty limestone, as well as the ironstone-bearing 
beds, persist throughout a remarkably wide area. According to 
the Record of the Work of the Geological Institute this 
ferruginous stratum decreases in thickness from southern Shan-si 
towards the north, ranging from 37 mm. to a few metres. In western 
Shan-tung the Shansian System is locally known as the Poshan 
Series.2, Apart from the intercalation, in the upper part of this 
series, of contemporaneous lava and tuff, there appears no notable 
lithological difference from its equivalent in Shan-si. 
Several assemblages of marine fossils were found by Richthofen 
in the provinces of Shan-tung and Shan-si from the marine inter- 
calations of the Shansian System. According to Professor Frech,® 
the fauna which consists of Productus semireticulatus, P. scabriculus, 
P. longispinus, P. giganteus, Spirifer duplicicosta, S. bisulcatus, 
S. (Martinia) glabra, Loxonema walciodolense, Macrocheilus ct. 
intermedius, Naticopsis cf. globulina, etc., is as a whole comparable 
with that of the Viséian Limestone of Europe. That is to say, at 
least the lower part of the Shansian System belongs to the Lower 
Carboniferous. After an examination of several species of 
Brachiopods obtained from the limestone member of the Shansian 
System, Douville failed to arrive at any definite conclusion with 
respect to the age of their containing rock. He doubts whether the 
limestone is comparable with the black marble of Tonkin ; the latter 
is generally considered as belonging to the Westphalian or possibly 
some earlier stage. Girty,4 after studying the marine fossils, 
including the species Squamularia cf. perplexa, Chonetes aff. flemingt, 
from Shan-tung and Shan-si, compares the Shansian System with 
the Pennsylvanian, viz. the Upper Carboniferous of North America ; 
while Hayasaka° endeavours te show that the marine fossiliferous 
zone of the Poshan Series is of the youngest Carboniferous age. 
1 China, vol. 11, pp. 406, 411. 2 Thid., p. 203. 
3 Thid., vol. v, pp. 63-76. 
4 “ Upper Paleozoic Fossils’’: Proc. U.S. Nat. Hist. Mus., 1908, pp. 37-48. 
5 Journ. Geol. Soc. Tokyo, vol. xxiv, No. 283, 1917, pp. 169-97. 
(To be continued.) 
