146 R. Pumpelly on Geological Observations 
preparing only a general and necessarily very incomplete idea 
of the geology of that interesting country. The data at my ser- 
vice are: my own observations, the extremely limited number 
of those of other foreigners, and the information obtained from 
Chinese works on the geography of the empire, chiefly bearing 
on its mineral productions and scattered through an immense 
range of literature. 
e chief results arrived at are as follows: 
I. There is reason for believing that there exists throughout 
China, an immense development of Devonian limestone, which 
_ rises to the surface in all the important ridges, and attains in 
places a thickness of over 10,000 feet. 
II. Wherever the formations beneath this limestone were 
seen, they were found to be, either granitic rocks, or metamor- 
are being examined Bik 
to be decidedly supra-carboniferous. The absence of Carbonifer- 
ous forms and the presence of Cycads closely resembling Triassi¢ 
species, make it probable that the coal-fields of China, which vie 
with our own in extent, are referable to the Triassic period. 
IV. Although from the limited range of actual observa 
tion, it would be assuming too much to assert that there 1s 4 
total absence of all formations younger than the Chinese Coal- 
measures, still I failed to find any traces of them, and I feel jus- 
tified in doubting the existence of marine Jurassic, Cretaceous 
or Tertiary deposits to any important extent, within the limits of 
the Eighteen Provinces, or China Proper, unless they may be 
represented on the frontiers of Assam, Burmah or Cochin China, 
or on the islands of Formosa or Hainan. 
V. Excluding the N.S. ranges of mountains that form the 
eastern edge of the Thibetan highland, only two systems of ele- 
vations occur in China, of sufficient importance to have left 4 
marked impress on the surface. These are the N.E., S.W. and 
the E.W. systems. The N.E. system of trends, in all eastern Asia, 
east of the 110th meridian, determines the outline of that part 
of the continent, and they, as well as nearly all the more import- 
ant features of this region, can represen by lines drawn 
rallel to a line running N, 47° E., pes coinciding with the mid- 
Me course of the Yangtse Kiang and the lower course of the 
Amur, with the longer axes of the Gulfs of Penjinsk and dS 
Pechele, and with that of the depression occupied by the delt@ 
plain of the Hwang Ho. ; 
