240 LA TOUCHK: (JE()LO(JY OF NORTHERN SHAN STATES. 



the lower part of the Plateau Limestone, though much obscured 

 by talus. A few very poorly preserved corals were also found 

 near the western edge of the plateau, south of Nyaungbaw (Loc. 

 28, B 5), but though recognisable as Cyathophyllum or Zaphrentis, 

 they cannot be identified with any of those from Padaukpin. 



Mr. Cowper Reed has remarked (Op. cit., p. 145) on the apparent 

 intermingling of species from different zones 

 a Sngle S ho5S ed at Padaukpin, and has suggested in corre- 



spondence that some of the fossils in the col- 

 lection may have been derived from other zones in the neighbour- 

 hood. I do not think that this is possible, even though manv of 

 the fossils were not actually extracted from the rock in position. 

 The exposure at Padaukpin is situated near the summit of a 

 gentle rise, on which the village is built, and there is no higher 

 ground in the immediate vicinity from which some of the fossils 

 might have been washed down. It is possible that we have 

 here an example of the concentration of more than one zone within 

 a small thickness of strata, owing to deficiency in sedimentation, as 

 in the case of the Tropites Limestone described by Dr. C. Diener 

 in Byans, 1 where a bed of limestone only 5 feet in thickness 

 rej) resents the carnic and noric stages of the Trias ; but until the 

 Padaukpin deposit has been opened out and thoroughly searched 

 this point cannot be definitely settled. 



The Devonian strata of China do not appear to attain any great 

 thickness, and consist for the most part of 

 Equivalents in China. dark bituminous limestones and shales. In 

 Yunnan. southern Yunnan fossils of middle Devonian age 



were obtained by v. Loczy 2 from these beds ; 

 and in northern Yunnan a rich collection was made by v. Bichtho- 

 fen and described by Kayser.3 These collections consist mainly 

 of brachiopods, as shown in the foregoing list, and there is cer- 

 tainly a close resemblance in facies with this section of the Pad- 

 aukpin fauna. In Central China the Devonian 

 is represented, according to Bailey Willis, 4 — - 



••throughout northern Ssi-ch'uan and southern Shen-si by thin strata of 

 calcareous, marly, bituminous character, which nowhere attain very great 



1 Fauna of the Tropites Limestone of Byans ; Pal. Ind., Ser. XV, Vol. V, Mem. 

 No. 1 , p. 200. 



2 Reise des Grafen Bela Szechenyi, Vol. I, p. t>82. 

 » Von Richthofen, China, Vol. IV, p. 75. 



* Research in China, Vol. II, |>. 59. 



