418 J. S. Lee—An Outline of Chinese Geology. 
(5) The Loess or Hwang-tu composed of a soft, homogeneous, clayey 
material often with suggestions of stratification, occasionally 
interbedded with sands and clays ; capping high mountain ranges 
and forming extensive plains in northern China. The structure of 
the Loess is singularly vertical; for instance, peculiar tubes 
sometimes as small as rootlets and sometimes as large as organ 
pipes frequently traverse the rock upwards and downwards. 
Continental China has experienced much change since the later 
part of the Jurassic time. The succession of the more important 
events is briefly as follows: As the Jurassic seas receded both north- 
ward and southward from China proper, forces of denudation began 
to operate in full swing. Mountain ranges in central China were to 
a large extent planed down. The material thus produced was washed 
off into the neighbouring valleys and basins, such as the Great Red 
Basin of Su-chuan and others. The whole country, which presumably 
possessed a strong relief in the early part of the Jurassic period, 
gradually became a vast expanse of tableland. By,the Cretaceous 
time China proper was completely reduced to a mature peneplain. 
Nevertheless, a broad epeirogenic swell seems to have continued 
to uplift the country in a steadfast manner, for even the world-wide 
Cenomanian transgression did not invade China any further than 
the southern part of Tibet. 
Towards mid-Tertiary time the prolonged tranquillity was broken 
by a violent attack of orogenic movement from the south. The 
Alps of the Himalaya rose to a great altitude to the west of China ; 
the Tsing-ling and Nan-ling ranges attained their lofty attitude 
across the central and the southern part of the country; large 
blocks of strata were faulted down in northern China to the extent 
of 10,000 feet or more ; fissures or vein eruptions ejecting enormous 
quantities of basaltic lava were rampant in southern Mongolia, 
Shan-tung, and northern Kiang-su, answering to their comrades 
that were then fully active in Iceland and north-western Britain. 
Thus the process of erosion once more became vigorous. 
The scenery of China was then quite different to the aged pene- 
plain of the Cretaceous and early Tertiary time. Salt basins and 
intermontain lakes existed in all provinces. Such a varied type of 
scenery and other physical conditions evidently attracted the 
wandering beasts from various parts of the globe. The plateaus and 
open plains were peopled by the Hipparion fauna, while the forests 
and swamps were inhabited by the Swid@ or deer and swine-like 
animals. Their ancestors may have lived in Europe and North 
America, as shown by the presence of antelopes, Cervus, Tylopoda, 
etc., and their allies certainly scattered all over India and Persia. 
Inevitably the lakes and basins were rapidly filled up by material 
derived from the mountains and highlands resulting in the formation 
of the Young Red Sandstone. Side by side, the deposition of the 
Gobi Series in north-western China turned the shallow inland sea into 
a vast plain dotted over with a large number of saline lakes. This 
region well deserves the name “‘ Han-hai”’ or the Dry Sea. 
