SINO-MONGOLIAN FRONTIER 
Referring to his various analyses he says: “ All 
these analysis of coal from P.T.C. (P’ing-ting Chou) 
show a coal of high quality. Richthofen calls it 
equal to the best Pennsylvanian anthracite.” 
As one travels up the valley from Yang-ts’uen 
one passes places where the Pao Ching Mining 
Company ? has sunk shafts, and is mining com- 
paratively small quantities of coal. Along the 
line where cuttings have been made one can see 
thick seams of coal actually exposed. 
Continuing in a direction a little south of west, it 
is noticed that the strata, now comprised of alter- 
nate beds of sandstone and shale, and varying in 
colour from a dark purplish brown to olive green 
and yellow ochre, still dip to the west. Steadily 
ascending, the railway line next passes through 
the Red Beds, which are red shales and sandstones 
forming the upper layers of the Shansi formation. 
Finally come the thick loess deposits of the Shou- 
yang Hsien district, just before reaching which town, 
the highest point on the line, marking the divide 
between the Fén-Ho and the P’u-t’o Ho, is crossed 
(about 3,000 ft. altitude). From here a descent 
1 This company was formed by the gentry of the province 
to exploit the mineral resources (chiefly coal and iron) after 
the redemption of the mining rights from the Pekin Syndicate, 
by the payment, it is said, of Tls. 2,250,000. The concession was 
first obtained by the Pekin Syndicate in 1898, and was finally 
relinquished in 1907. Since that time the Chinese have 
really done very little to develop these vast mineral re- 
sources, 
257 s 
