POPULOUS 
AND BEAUTIFUL SZECHUAN 
WL 
Gi pee 
Si 2 hen eo 
Photo by Rollin T. Chamberlin 
At every village through which a foreign caravan passes the natives swarm about the 
sedan chairs to catch glimpses of the curious passengers. 
They are generally highlv amused 
and very seldom show any signs of animosity toward the stranger. 
fragments of this limestone on the right 
bank, place its age as Carboniferous. 
Probably this great limestone formation 
is to be correlated with the thick Wushan 
limestone of the Yang-tse gorges, which 
has been described by Willis and Black- 
welder. 
Late in the afternoon at Tzien Keh 
Ching a parting of the ways was reached 
The Min River at this point makes an- 
other right-angled turn, and from Tzien 
Keh back to its source high up in the 
heart of the Alpine tract the stream main- 
tains a course generally at right angles 
to the strike of the strata, and thus takes 
the traveler straight across the structural 
features of the region. 
The rough mountain road, which was 
leading us southwest along the strike val- 
ley, may be followed right on up the 
valley, which is occupied by a tributary 
of the Min. This is the route to Ta 
Lu, Batang, and eventually Lhassa.* 
Though this road finally leads across the 
mountain barriers to the great plateau, 
one day’s dash along the strike did not 
appear promising from our point of view. 
We preferred to trust to the narrow path- 
way which follows the main stream 
above Tzien Keh, in the hope of getting 
in the short time available the key to the 
geologic structure of this part of Tibet’s 
eastern mountain border. 
Tzien Keh Ching is a typical mountain 
*This region is admirably described in the 
November, 1911, number of the NATIONAL 
GrocraPHic Macazing by E. H. Wilson, who 
traveled from Kuan Hsien to Ta Chien Lu. 
