66 GEOLOGICAL RBSEARCHESIN 



E. W., exists, and to its disturbing influence are due some of the most important 

 and beneficial features in the structure of the country. 



Between the Wei river of Shensi and the Sz'chuen boundary, two ranges, parallel 

 branches of the prolonged Kwenlun, with a general trend from west to east, pene- 

 trate far into Central China. Some of the peaks of these chains are said by Klap- 

 roth, on Chinese authority, to rise above the snowline. The numerous gold locali- 

 ties in this region point to an extensive development of the older metamorphic 

 rocks, while the presence of stalactitic caves and other indications of limestone seem 

 to show that this formation flanks the ranges in question. 



The trends of the upper courses of the rivers Han and Kialung, and the com- 

 munication said to exist between these streams at Ningkiang C. seem to indicate 

 that the space between these ridges is an elevated table-land, divided by a low 

 watershed that separates the sources of the Han from those of the Kialung. This 

 watershed would be in the line of the limestone range represented as crossing 

 Shansi, Shensi, and Western Sz'chuen. 



The disturbances caused by the northernmost of these ridges ceases in Honan, 

 but the southern member seems to continue farther east, apparently crossing Hupeh 

 into Nganhwui. 



Of the mountains in Southern China thai belong to this system, we know as little 

 as of those just mentioned. They are spoken of as containing snow-capped peaks 

 and high table-lands in Kwangsi and Kweichau, and are supposed by Humboldt^ 

 to be the continuation of the Himalaya mountains. The hydrography of Yunnan, 

 as shown on the great map of Kanghi, would seem to indicate the existence of a 

 more or less elevated plateau, which, beginning west of the Lantsan river, trends 

 nearly east, entirely across Yunnan, occupying a region in which rise tributaries 

 both of the Yangtse and the Si Ho, and of the rivers that flow to the Gulf of Ton- 

 quin. The little that is known of the climate of the city of Yunnan ' F. (in about 

 25° N.) tends to confirm the supposition that it is on an elevated table-land.^ This 

 plateau seems to extend to the western part of the province, where it appears to 

 terminate abruptly toward the plain of the Irawaddi river, for Marco Polo required 

 two days and a half to descend from the city of Yungchang F. to the lowlands of 

 Ava, and speaks of the descent as being very great (" grandissima discesa.")* 



To'svard the east these highlands are represented by Klaproth as forming two 

 diverging ranges of mountains, the northernmost of which is crowned with snowy 

 peaks and glaciers till near the head waters of the Yuen river."* There seems to be 

 little doubt that in the meridian of Kweilin F., and to the east of that point, this 

 northern branch forms a comparatively low range, and is nearly lost in the N. E. 

 S. W. system. 



' Asie Centrale. " Kitter, Asien, III, 754. ^ Ritter, Asien, III, p. U6. 



* Ritter, Asien, III, p. 660. Klaproth, Mag. Asiat., II, pp. 139, 156. 



