to tlic well kiiitwii |i:inilNilio liiw iiiid wliidi, ivs \vc Imve seen, urt" i-iit tliroiigli 

 a nearly liorizoiital iilatoaii, must l>o most »ilion;;ly o|iim)s<.'(1 to tin- |il:it<'aii- 

 siirfiu-o next to tlieir nii>iitli(i. and tire very liifjliest jiivi-iiiiccs niiiRt. «t all event*, l« 

 IbniKl next to tlie se.i side. t.\)iise<iueiitly we see tli(^ i«est exiK)sures and geolo<^ieal 

 o|>enint]p», and above all those wliieli ;;ivc the most ji'-rfect pection«, in tlic vicinity 

 of Toldo and Yokoliama and otlier placea near llie cliore. It is not, tlierefore, at 

 of all astonisliioi^. that eliietiy at Tokio, Kana^awa, Yokohama we find ihotiC 

 o|K.'ninj,'s and steep slopes which exhiiiit the lower parls of the platejiu-tormalions. 

 The hij;hei" of them — if wo dednet the less important a1hivi.il dep<witt> on 

 the very top of the diluvid livers of the plati*aii — are nndoidiltnlly dilui inl, and 

 may be taken as a sort of base for further investigation. Now there is every- 

 where a series of more or less thiek strata, whieh often iinifonnly, or eomformahly, 

 succeed tlie uppermost deposits ami. as scarcely needs lie mentioned, an- always 

 horizontal. These strata, partly clayi>h, partly sandy, sometimes tiifaei-ons and 

 very often intennixed with thick layei-s of rontiil ]>el)h!es, sometimes till np the 

 total height from the li-vel of the sea or the dee|iest point to lie observed in the 

 sections, whilst in many other cases they arc only some metres thick. But in 

 both cases a line of uncomformabiiity is lielow them, and indeed this line is 

 always more or less clearly to be .seen whenever wc have the second case in which 

 the diluvial formations described alnive do not reach the lowest |iart of tlio 

 swtinn. The str.ita W-low that line of rniomfonnability are sometim s nearly 

 horizontal; but in m;iny other c.u-^es they are niore or less strongly incliiie<l- 

 We may therefore lussnnie that they are ditlerent in ago and form.ition from 

 the npper ones. Indeed they an; to be determined without any prejudice nml 

 williont excluding them a iriori fioiii any formation Itelonging to or older than 

 the diluvial era. It is not alto;;elher exvduded, that they mii;ht iK-long to the 

 older put of the, 'JJi uvium" or quaternary eptich ; they might be. on the other 

 hand, of a very old origin, and it is not without a dee|KT stucly of all their 

 peculiarities ol' structure , ami above all of their organic remains, that we 



are allowed to draw a conclusion almut their nature. Now it has Invii alrcady 

 mentioned that a gre.it [>art of their orgainc remains. i'.>.|H.vially of the fos^il 

 inollusca, belongs to recent species, and this fact shows that, if not diluvial, they 

 are of a very recent - or neogene — tertiary origin. Whether the one or the other 

 case is lielbrc tis, will ap|iear, as has lieen already hinted, in the following pagi-s. 

 It may be notice! bi-forednnd that tin- eiui •|iisi:iu dr.iwn fmni Ilie iiio||u<'e.t 

 found at Uji, Shinagnwa, Vokoham a iVc, viz. that the dejHisit.s nmst lie tertiary 

 and not (juaternary ones if conlirmeil by the strietness with whieh tin' line of 

 tmc(anformability appears, and by the strongly niarked ililfercnci'S in tlie atigle 

 of dipping between the two series of ^t^atn— either above or lielow that line — , 

 which are often to \m' ol^scrved. Instances of Ixith fact« will lie given in the 

 detailed descriptions of the swti.ins of !^hinagawa. Kan i'.;awa, Vokohiima, Taki- 

 gashira, Surugadai and Uji. Thus, both the architecture of the f«irmation» and 

 the jialeontological character tend to prove that the »>liell layers Udow the line 



