1871.] KINGSMILL — CHINESE " LOESS." 377 



the Baron's description of the deposit* more than to say that in 

 places the carbonates have segregated from the mass in nodules of 

 fantastic shapes, which show, from the vertical position of their 

 major axis, their svibsequent origin. These nodules are of impor- 

 tance in a description of the mass, as, in the neighbourhood of Chin- 

 kiang at least, they seem to divide the whole formation into at 



* The following is Baron von E/ichthofen's description of the deposit, extracted 

 from the Report already cited (pp. 9, 10) : — 



" The Loess is among the rarious substances which would commonly be called 

 loam, because it is earthy and has a brownish yellow colour. It can be rubbed 

 between the fingers to an impalpable powder, wliich disappears in the pores of 

 the skin, some grains of very fine sand only remaining. By mechanical de- 

 struction, such as is caused by cartwheels on a road, it is converted into true 

 loam. When in its original state it has a certain solidity, and is very porous, 

 and perforated throughout its mass by thin tubes, which ramify like roots of 

 grass and have evidently their origin in the former existence of roots. They 

 are incrusted with a film of carbonate of lime. Water, which forms pools on 

 loam, enters therefore into loess as into a sponge, and percolates it without in the 

 least converting it into a pulp or mud. The loess is everywhere full of organic 

 remains ; but I have never seen any other but land-shells, bones of land-animals, 

 and the numberless impressions of roots of plants. It is not stratified, but has 

 a strong tendency to cleave along vertical planes ; therefore, wherever a river 

 cuts into it, the loess abuts against it, or against its alluvial bottom-land, in ver- 

 tical cliffs, which are in places 500 feet high ; above them the slopes recede gra- 

 dually in a series of terraces with perpendicular front faces. Where the river 

 reaches the foot of such a wall, the progress of destruction is rapid ; the cliff 

 is undermined, aud the Loess breaks off in vertical sheets, which tumble into the 



stream, to be carried down by the water The beds of the affluents 



which join the river in these places are no less deeply cut into the Loess, and 

 ramify into its more elevated portions like the roots of a tree, every small 



branch a steep and narrow gulch It gives habitation to millions of 



human beings They live in excavations made in the [precipitous 



walls of] Loess. 



" As regards the mode of origin of this formation, the Loess of China, like 

 that of Europe (where it exists on a comparatively small scale), has been sup- 

 posed to be a freshwater deposit. This supposition is erroneous as regards the 

 Loess of Northern China, because it extends equally over hills and valleys, and 

 does not contain freshwater shells. Others have therefore considered it as a 

 marine deposit. This view is more erroneous even than the former, because it 

 would presuppose the whole of Northern China to have been submerged at least 

 6000 feet beneath the level of the sea in a recent epoch, while there is abimdant 

 evidence to prove that such has not been the case. Nor can the theory, current 

 in Germany, that the Loess of that coimtry was produced by glacial action, be 

 at all applied to the Loess of Northern China, from various obvious reasons too 

 lengthy to explain here. Unbiased observation leads irresistibly to the conclu- 

 sion that the Loess of Cliina has been formed on dry land. The whole of that 

 vast country, which was covered by a continuous sheet of Loess before this had 

 undergone destruction, was one continuous prau'ie, probably of greater elevation 

 above the sea than the same region is now. The Loess is the residue of all in- 

 organic matter of numberless generations of plants that drew new supplies in- 

 cessantly from those substances which ascend in moisture and springs, carried 

 in solution to the surface. This slow accumulation of decayed matter was as- 

 sisted by the sand and dust deposited through infinite ages by winds. The 

 land-shells are distributed through the whole thickness of the Loess ; and their 

 state of preservation is so perfect that they must have lived on the spot where 

 we now find them. They certainly admit of no other explanation than that, 

 here hinted at, of the formation of the soil in which they are imbedded. The 

 bones of land animals and chiefly the roots of plants, which are all preserved in 

 their natural and oi-iginal position, give corroborative evidence." 



