132 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [DoC. 23. 



unconformably the lower quartzites and shales, a very peculiar series 

 of conglomerates, trappean grits, and flag-stones. The position is 

 very similar to that of the Chung- shan series, and the dip in the 

 neighbourhood of Ningpo, S.E. 5° to 15°, the same as at Nanking. 

 The rocks seem to commence with a conglomerate formed from the 

 wear and tear of the older rocks, and to be succeeded by a coarse 

 trappean grit of a greenish colour ; this grit is coarsely laminated, 

 the cleavage-planes crossing those of bedding at high angles, and is 

 used for coarse flag-stones. It often contains imbedded fragments of 

 the older rocks, across which, irrespective of their structure, the super- 

 induced cleavage runs. Succeeding these grits is a thick mass of 

 fine-grained siliceous grits and flag-stones, often finely laminated 

 and ripple-marked, and divided by vertical joints. This series "is 

 excee(ingly well developed near the village of Ningkong-kiu, where 

 the river, flowing along a valley formed by one of these jointage- 

 planes, affords a good section on both sides. I have found no fossils 

 of any sort in these rocks ; they differ entirely in composition from 

 the Chung-shan rocks, though, as they are identical in position, 

 they may probably be referred to the same age. 



In Hunan the coal series, which there, as in Kiangsu, occurs inter- 

 stratified with limestones, is supposed by Mr. Bickmore to run up 

 into Red Sandstone. In Kwangtung, in the department of Hwa, 

 locally called Fayune, a small coal-field, apparently covered with 

 Red Sandstone, likewise occurs. In the north of the same province, 

 in the prefecture of Shao-chow, coal, said to be of inferior quality, is 

 likewise worked. In the north-east of the province, in the prefec- 

 ture of Chao-chow, on the borders of Fuhkien, there are likewise 

 coal-mines. In Chehkiang, as above-stated, in the prefectures of 

 Kinghwa and Kiichow, coal-mines were worked until the distur- 

 bances consequent on the Taiping rebellion ; they are now reported 

 as closed, and the inhabitants left to rely on foreign importation or 

 to use charcoal, the latter a fuel gradually becoming scarcer with the 

 increased weakness of the government. In Kiangsi, in the pre- 

 fecture of Kwangsiu, coal of good quality seems to be worked from 

 vertical shafts, the only means of raising it, however, employed by 

 the Chinese being a common wooden winch ; the mines are venti- 

 lated by forcing down air through bamboo tubes. In the prefecture 

 of Kanchow, in the same province, coal-mines also occur ; in fact, 

 as Kiangsi may be said to represent a basin of newer rocks sur- 

 rounded by a rim of the older subcarboniferous series, coal will 

 probably be found to occur in the greater portion of the province. 

 I have had no opportunity of examining the position or quality of 

 any of these coals. 



In Hunan, however, the most important coal-field of South China 

 has long been worked ; it has also supplied large quantities of iron. 

 According to Mr. Bickmore, the coal is interstratified with the lime- 

 stone, representing, therefore, the older beds. What coal I have 

 seen agrees in quality and structure with that from Suichang, de- 

 scribed above. Hunan coal is an important article of traffic on the 

 river Yangtse — the lower provinces, though containing themselves 



