1868.J KINGSJIILL GEOLOGY OF CHINA. 131 



variety, and seemed, making allowance for seven years' exposure, to 

 be of fair quality ; the fracture was bright and clean ; and though 

 the specific gravity was rather low, it was reported to me by the 

 master of one of the Imperial steamers which regularly coaled from 

 these mines during the siege of JSTanking, that they had found it of 

 most satisfactory quality. The covering rocks are coarse siliceous 

 sandstones, readily disintegrated and easily removed, from the want 

 of tenacity in the cementing substance. The surface acquires, on 

 exposure, a deep black colour, though the general tint of the beds is 

 a faint yeUow. Associated with the coal seemed to be siliceous 

 shales, containing small bullet-shaped nodules of iron pyrites and 

 the remains of a few ill-preserved stems, the character of which was 

 unrecognizable. 



"With the exception of some Annelid-burrows and tracks in No. 2 

 and the ill-preserved stems in No. 4, I have procured no fossils to 

 aid in judging of the geological age of these beds ; should they, 

 however, represent those at Hwangshihkang (p. 128) they should 

 apparently be referred to the latter portion of the Carboniferous 

 age. In the north of China a similar series of beds seems to occur 

 (though here I am not speaking from personal experience, nor do 

 my authorities aid me much by their descriptions) ; both anthracite 

 and bituminous coal are found apparently in the same district, the 

 anthracite probably representing the coal-bed in the Tiing-ting 

 system, the bituminous the Chung-shan coal. Remains of Cycads 

 have been found in these northern deposits, of the fossils from which 

 Pere David, at Peking, has made a large collection ; and from this the 

 American geologists who examined Mr. Pumpelly's specimens have 

 concluded that the Chinese coal-fields are of Triassic age. Should 

 the fossil mentioned (p. 128) be a Cycad, as seems not unlikely, this 

 would be an instance of that family of plants being found with an 

 undoubtedly primaeval flora — a fact the more interesting as Cycads 

 to the present day flourish in the adjoining country of Japan, 



In the province of Chehkiang, in the prefecture of Ningpo, the 

 lower portion of the Tung-ting series is largely developed, quartzites 

 highly metamorphosed and associated with granites and porphyries 

 forming the prevailing rocks ; agates and fluor spar are found in 

 considerable quantities ; while iron, in the shape of magnetic ore of 

 considerable value, is in many places worked to a slight extent, 

 being obtained in the shape of sand from the mountain -torrents. 

 In the Chusan islands, within this prefecture, the coast chain of the 

 northern provinces may be said to end ; and in them, associated with 

 granite, occur portions of these grits, similar in many respects in 

 aspect to the same rocks in Hong Kong. Following the series 

 inland, though the sequence cannot be so readily seen as in the cen- 

 tral provinces, we seem to pass over the Tung- ting grits, and in the 

 prefecture of Ejnghwa and Hangchow to meet with limestone, 

 which, along the valley of the Tsientang, the principal river of the 

 province, is said to be associated with beds of coal. In the prefec- 

 ture of Mngpo, near the town of Tszeki, at Mngkong-kiu, in the 

 " Snowy valley," and at many other places there occurs, overlying 



VOL. XXV. PART I. Jj 



