1868.] KINGSMILL— GEOLOGY OF CHINA. 119 



2. Notes on the Geology 0/ China, with more especial reference to the 

 Peovinces of the Lower Yangtse. By T. W. Kingsmill, Corr. 

 Sec. North- Chin a Branch of the Eoyal Asiatic Society. 



[Communicated by the President.] 



So far as I am aware, no attempt has been as yet made to classify 

 the several geological formations of this huge empire. Isolated 

 accounts of small sections have, indeed, appeared, but these for the 

 most part were the productions of travellers inexperienced in the 

 nomenclature of the science. Two exceptions, however, may be men- 

 tioned ; one of these is Mr. E-aphael Pumpelly, who in the years 

 1863-5 examined the coal-beds of the north-eastern provinces ; the 

 other, Mr. A. S. Bickmore, who in the year 1866 penetrated from Can- 

 ton by Kwangsi and Hunan to Hankow in the centre of the empire. 

 Unfortunately Mr. Pumpelly, so far as I know, has published no full 

 statement of his researches, the only account being a short notice in 

 Silliman's Journal in 1866, which, unluckily, I have not had the 

 oppoitunity of perusing in full ; while Mr. Bickmore' s stay was too 

 short, and the restrictions imposed on him during his adventurous 

 journey too severe, to have afforded him the opportunity of forming 

 a regular classification. I shall in the course of this paper, however, 

 allude to some very interesting observations of his, detailed in a paper 

 read before the IN^orth-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 

 and published in the volume of their Transactions for last year. 



My own personal observations have been made during a residence 

 of nearly seven years, distributed between Hongkong, Canton, 

 Shanghai, and Hankow, having had besides the advantage of occa- 

 sional visits to all the open ports in the South of China, from most 

 of which I have made excursions into the country lying around. 

 In January of the j)resent year (1868) I spent some ten days in the 

 inspection of the country situated in the neiglibourhood of Nanking 

 and Chinkiang, which afforded me some valuable results, while other 

 tours have made me tolerably well acquainted with the districts of 

 Lower Kiangsu, of southern Nganhwei, and of the districts of Kiangsi 

 and Hupeh adjacent to the river Yangtse. 



Excluding the provinces of Puhkien and Chehkiang, which proba- 

 bly offer some partial exceptions, the aqueous formations of the south 

 of China commence at bottom with a series of coarse grits and sand- 

 stones overlain conformably by limestones and shales. This forma- 

 tion extends from the east coast far into Hupeh, and apparently to 

 the west of Sz'chuen, and from the south of Kwangtung certainly as 

 far north as the basin of the Yangtse, and probably far into Mon- 

 golia. Throughout all the districts with which I am acquainted it 

 occurs in vast synclinals and anticlinals, forming a series of mountain- 

 chains rising generally to no great height, though in the Mei-ling 

 between Kwangtung and Kiangsi, in the Wue-shan between the 

 latter province and Euhkien, and in the Lu-shan near Kiukiang on 

 the Yangtse it seems to exceed the altitude of 5000 feet. In fact 

 it may be said to form the skeleton of the country, the succeeding 

 formations occurring for the most part in the valleys and depressions 



