378 PROCEEDINGS OE THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [A-pr. 26, 



least three successive beds, showing that, contrary to the Baron's 

 idea, the mass is really stratified, though the uniform character of 

 its constituents and their extremely mobile nature have for the most 

 part effaced any decided marks of deposition. 



To account for the origin of the formation. Baron von Eichthofen 

 has started the extremely ingenious explanation that the beds of 

 the Chinese Loess have been formed on dry land, his principal 

 reasons for this assumption being that the beds contain remains of 

 laud-shells and land-animals to the exclusion of marine or even, so 

 far as known, freshwater species, and that no depression of the 

 eastern portion of the continent is sufficiently recent to allow of their 

 deposition under the surface of the sea. 



I shall deal with these objections in reverse order, and afterwards 

 state some reasons against the subaerial theory. 



Evidence of late depression in North China. — -Pirst, the Baron 

 states that there is evidence to prove that the north of China has 

 not been submerged to the depth of 6000 feet within a recent geolo- 

 gical epoch. Without arguing as to the difficulty of proving a nega- 

 tive of this sort, I shall only state that to my mind there is abundant 

 evidence, irrespective of the Loess itself, to prove that China, as far 

 north as the Yellow Biver (beyond which my personal experience 

 does not extend), has since the commencement of the Tertiary period 

 been the scene of very considerable depression. Proofs of this, I 

 believe, are to be found in the upper Nanking sandstones and con- 

 glomerates and their succeeding rocks. These sandstones, in almost 

 perfectly horizontal strata, stretch from the south of Nanking through 

 northern Anhwei as far at least as Ting-yuen-hien in the Pung-yang 

 prefecture, being especially characteristic at Luchow-fu, in the 

 centre of this district. The upper portion of these rocks I believe 

 to represent the Tatung gravels of Baron von Eichthofen. These 

 Tatung gravels extend through the south-western portion of Anhwei, 

 forming in many localities the bed of the present valley of the Tang- 

 tsze, are seen in still greater development in Hupeh, as at Hwang- 

 chow and Wuchang-hien, and probably reach as far west as Ichang, 

 at the foot of the gorges of the upper Yangtsze. I have met mth 

 them mj^self at San-kia-tientsze, some thirty miles from Pung-yang- 

 fu, in the north-east of Anhwei province, where they form a bold 

 escarpment looking over what was at one time the Yellow Sea, but 

 now constitutes the alluvial plain of Kiang-peh. I do not know how 

 much further in either direction these beds extend ; and, besides, I 

 wish to confine myself to facts within my own observation. If local 

 conditions at Kiukiang on the Yangtsze are to be trusted, these gravels 

 pass upwards into the Kiukiang laterite, a deposit occupying likewise 

 a considerable area in Anhwei, Kiangsi, and Hupeh. 



It seems improbable that these rocks, which extend over so large 

 a space, are otherwise than marine, though at present no fossils have 

 been collected in them. The bold escarpments of the hills on either 

 side of the Yangtsze occur in localities where it seems impossible to 

 ascribe them to fluvial action. They are much more suggestive of 

 ancient coast-lines. They are, besides, not confined to the valley of 



