376 PBOCEEDraes op the geologicai, sociEiY. [Apr. 26, 



y 



posal of any gentleman wlio would examine it. As regarded the 

 idea that Harmotome usually occurred near the surface, he could 

 give no information ahout the old mines, as they had been allowed 

 to fall in; but most certainly the new specimens from Corrantee 

 came from surface- workings. He was very glad to learn from Mr. 

 Davis that Celestine had been found at the locaHty; and he felt 

 sure that careful search would double or treble the number of species 

 known to occur there. With reference to what had fallen from 

 Prof. Smyth, he could fuUy corroborate his observations as to the 

 diiference between the forms of Calcite associated with Harmotome 

 at Andreasberg, in the Hartz, and at Strontian. It was remarkable 

 that the general facies of the crystals of Calcite occurring at Cor- 

 rantee, where the lode was entirely in the gneiss, differed from that 

 usually observed in the old mines in Glen Strontian, which were 

 partly in the granite and partly in the gneiss. 



3. The PE0BA3LE Oeigin o/Deposits of '< Loess " in North China and 

 Eastern Asia. By Thomas W. Kjngsmill, Esq. 



(Communicated by Prof, Huxley, F.E.S., V.P.G.S.) 



The Baron F. von Eichthofen, in an able and interesting Eeport* of 

 a journey undertaken under the auspices of the General Chamber of 

 Commerce at Shanghai, alludes to the enormous area covered by the 

 light-clay deposits of North China which he found at Chinkiang and 

 Nanking, on the Yangtsze, and throughout almost the entire area 

 of Honan and Shansi. Beyond the area mentioned by the Baron, 

 they seem to extend into Shantung, to cover a large portion of 

 Northern Anhwei, and, according to Pumpelli, to reach to North 

 Chihli and Mongolia. The formation appears to answer in a great 

 measure to the Kunkur formation of India, and in all probability 

 extends far into the elevated plains of Central Asia. The name of 

 " Loess," taken from the similar deposit in the valley of the Ehine, 

 has been applied by the Baron von Eichthofen to this formation ; 

 and to it as a distinctive name, independent of any theory as to its 

 formation, there does not seem any objection. So many different 

 opinions have been held as to the origin of the Loess of the Ehine, 

 that it is not surprising a similar difference should exist in regard 

 to the vastly more extensive deposit of Eastern Asia. The latter, 

 however, though almost identical in structure and composition with 

 the former, differs widely from it in position, inasmuch as it is by 

 no means confined to the valleys of the great rivers, but stretches 

 almost uninterruptedly over the raised tablelands of Central and 

 Northern China, Like the Ehine-Loess it contains a large per- 

 centage of earthy carbonates mixed with impalpable siliceous sand, 

 and the ordinary constituents of clay. There is little to be added to 



* No. III. Keport on the Provinces of Honan and Shansi, fol. Shanghai, 

 1870. 



