38 EEPOET OF THE SECRETARY. 



The east-west system appears to have risen later than the other, 

 since it has elevated the limestone and overlying rocks which rest 

 upon its sides. Evidences are presented of recent oscillations ex- 

 tending over great areas in the form of terraces. 



In the great plain of northeastern China is a delta deposit extend- 

 ing over nearly eight degrees of latitude, which is yearly increasing 

 in extent. Through this delta the Hwang Ho varies its course every 

 few centuries, emptying into the sea alternately to the north and to 

 the south of a mountainous peninsula, thus presenting the remarka- 

 ble phenomenon of one of the great rivers of the- earth not only 

 shifting its course through several degrees of latitude, but also of 

 returning to the same bed after the lapse of a number of years. 



The great table-land which lies between China and Siberia, where 

 the author crossed it, consists of basins of undisturbed strata of sand- 

 stone, containing beds of gypsum. In the south this table-land gen- 

 erally terminates in a precipitous wall, formed of an immense devel- 

 opment of lava, in some places more than 1,500 feet thick. 



The abrupt termination of the plateau is owing to a great disloca- 

 tion which marks approximately the coast-line of a former ocean to 

 the north, in which the most recent deposits of the plain originate, 

 and along whose southern shore there existed an extensive region of 

 volcanic activity. The plateau is terminated on the east by parallel 

 ridges, which descend by successive terraces to the low land. 



Among the more economical results obtained may be mentioned a 

 large number of extensive coal basins and the deposits of other use- 

 ful minerals, which are so widely distributed throughout the empire 

 as to warrant the belief that China scarcely stands second to any 

 other country in regard to the quantity and quality of its coal and 

 its other mineral resources. 



Such gifts of nature, says the author, combined as they are with a 

 variety of favorable circumstances, cannot long be unappreciated. 

 They are the elements of the civilization of the present age,- and in 

 the natural course of events the country possessing them cannot long 

 avoid being drawn into the stream of industrial and intellectual pro- 

 gress. 



Among the papers which have been offered for publication is a vo- 

 cabulary and grammar of the Nootka Sound language, by the Rev. C. 

 Knipe. This was the result of a residence of *a year and a half 

 among the tribes inhabiting that portion of the northwest coast of 

 America. The same language extends southward to Cape Flattery, 

 , and is one upon which very little correct information has been ob- 



