2 GEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN 



of Eastern Asia, let us look for it in China also, where we have to rely on a more 

 limited number of data, partly geological and partly topographical in their character. 



Where the Yangtse river crosses the Sz'chuen-IIupeh frontier, it cuts through a 

 broad mountain range whose principal axis crosses the river in long. 111° 15', near 

 Ichano- (fu). Here the axial granite rises 600 to 1000 feet above the river, and 

 is flanked on both sides by an immense thickness of limestone and coal-bearing 

 rocks, whose strata have here a mean trend to N. E. If, through this point, we 

 draw a line (C, D, PL VII) havmg a similar trend, its prolongation will indicate 

 the watershed between the Hwai river and the Han river, the watershed of Shan- 

 tun o-, and following the Line of islands that stretch across the entrance to the Gulf 

 of Pechele, it will coincide with the range of mountains, which, beginning with the 

 promontory of Liautung, divides the waters first of the Liau river and Yaluh river, 

 and afterwards, of the Sungari river and Usuri river. If we prolong the line from 

 the Yangtse to the S. W., it will nearly coincide with the mountains that part the 

 rivers of Kweichau from those of Hmian. 



All these ridges I take to be members of a continuous line of elevation, extending 

 from Southern China to the Amur river, and which, from its influence on the 

 character of the country, may be called the central anticlinal axis of China. 



A line drawn from near Canton and passing through the Chusan archipelago, 

 will represent the mean trend of the coast range, and, if prolonged to the N. E., it 

 will cut the Corean peninsula near its southern end, in what .appears to be its most 

 mountainous point.'- In the other direction, the island of Hainan, from its N. E. 

 S. W. trend and lofty mountains, would seem to be a member of the same range. 



In Northwestern China, a great range crosses the Yellow river, in its course 

 between Shansi and Shensi, and trending N. E. by E., connects the mountain 

 knot of Northwestern Sz'chuen with that of the Ourang daban north of the 

 Tushikau gate of the Great Wall. Nearly parallel to this is another range which, 

 beginning west of Singan (fu), crosses the Yellow river, forming the Lungmun 

 gorge, and traversing, obliquely, the centre of Shansi, gradually approaches the 

 other range in northern Chihli. 



These are the three principal axes, and they seem to be made up of parallel 

 anticlinal ridges. Minor parallel axes seem to occupy the country between these 

 larger ranges. 



If we examine the maps of the provinces that border on the eastern edge of the 

 Tibetan highland, we find a system of ranges, which, branching off from the 

 Kwenlun and following, at first, a southeasterly course, gradually merge into a N. 

 S. trend. The easternmost of these, occupying western Sz'chuen, divide the 

 principal northern tributaries of the Yangtse. Those farther west form the narroAv 

 watersheds between the upper courses of the Yangtse, the Cambodia and the 

 Salween, and, in their southern prolongation, they form the Malayan peninsula and 

 probably that occupied by Annam and Siam. The N. S. trend seems to be con- 

 fined exclusively to the extreme west of China. 



' According to the great map of Kanghi this peninsula seems to have its principal mountains in 

 the south, forming a N. E. S. W. ridge. 



