204 



pi'oviiice of Yun-nan and also in Kwei-chou (if Orthothetes crenistria from 

 Tou-tang is not from a Devonian stratum). But we lack any convincing 

 evidence in favour of Frech's assumption, that the Lower Carboniferous sea 

 overflowed the most part of southern and northern China. On the contrary, 

 the impression that I get from a general survey of all the facts known in this 

 connection is that the fossiliferous bed of Hwang-tu-pu may rather represent 

 either a stage ti'ansitional from the Upper Devonian to the Lower Carboni- 

 ferous, or at most the lowest division of the Lower Carboniferous, rath'er than 

 any higher stages of the latter ; so it seems to me most likely that the exten- 

 sive Upper Devonian sea shrunk gradually towards the end of this period 

 from the interior of China, until in the Lower Carboniferous age it became 

 almost confined to the present area of Yun-nan (and also a part of Kwei-chou?) 

 in the southern part of continental China, the more northeastern part, includ- 

 ing what is now Hu-nan, and Kiang-si, being then uncovered by marine water, 

 the remnant of which seems to have existed there, if at all, only at the very 

 beginning of the Lower Carboniferous. 



As seen from the above explanation, it is only provisionally that we treat 

 the following fossils in the present material under the heading of Lower 

 Carboniferous : 



1. East of Tou-tang,^' Wci-ning-chou, Ta-ting-fu, prov. Kwei-chou 

 (Yamada Col!., No. 53.) 



OrtJiothetcs crenistria (Phill.) Fkech. 

 It was found in a dark shale. 



2. Hwang-tu-pu, Chi-yang-hsien, prov. Hu-nan (ISHif Coll.) 



Spirifcr bisiilcatus Sowerbv. 



Atkyris royssii L'F.veille. 



Rhynchonella pleiirodon Phillips. 

 These were found together in a gray shale, being accompanied by fragments 

 of crinoid stems and a F"enestella. 



