Tectonic Geography of liastcm Asia. — Ilohhs. 289 
varies so between nortluveslerly and nnrtlK-isterly directions that no 
order is recognizable. Tlic gnciss-js of Kino and Hida are here lack- 
ing; ai)parent]y only tbe elements of the Knma-Kii zone arc present, 
and it is nut pnivrn that detached portions of the latter do not have 
an issuitial jiart in ihv composition of the region in question due to 
tectonic fracturing on a large scale. 
0. 'IwD tectonic lines indicated by volcanoes invade from without 
tlie mass of Japan. The first of them is a, the Liukiu Line. It is con- 
nected witli the Kuma Kii range as a prominiuit flank range. Its 
interior recognizable line beset with i-land volcanoes, shows its 
invasion in a meridional series of volcanoes transverse to the structure 
of Kiusiu and extends perhaps to beyond Asayama. The tectonic 
influence of lines which are parallel to the latter nray be recognized 
in the abruptly terminated transverse coasts of southern Kiusiu. The 
second of the tectonic lines is />, the line of the Bonin ridge beset 
with the v'llcanoc', of the volcanic islands, Bonin islands, Schitschito 
islands, and other numberless volcanic islands arranged in the direction 
S by E to N by W. In the continuation of the latter line deviated 
toward the N N W. rise the volcanoes of the Fuji series. The unusu- 
al significance of this chain for Japan may be recognized in many 
different phenonuna. For not only does this series of volcanoes run 
through the entire island of Hondo throughout in its broadest place; 
it is also accompanied by a very important fault, which calls attention 
to the variety found in the plateaus (LandstafTeIn) of the continents 
in thist respect that the form of the land bordering upon the west 
noticeably ascends till it reaches the fault cleft and then an abrupt 
descent follows toward the deeper step : it appears, however, not to 
take place in step fractures, as is usually the case. A third matter of 
the utmost import is the drag on the 7cest sid>e of the great cross frac- 
ture. One cannot avoid Naumann's conclusion that where the depres- 
sion has occurred a solid obstruction existed, which lay in the line of 
the Bonin ridge. This is strengthenetl by the consideration that the 
Bonin ridge with its no longer projecting northwestern continuation, 
as regards position and direction, appicars as a fourth memljer in the 
parallel series : Hidake, Kitakami, Abukuma. 
The Bonin ridge with the Fuji zone indicates, indeed, that from 
here toward the east lay a continent which diffiered from the western 
with its equatorial arrangement by possessing a meridional structure ; 
and the conclusion is near that it is this once more highly projecting 
structure on whose western border the Japanese portion of the Tsin- 
Hng range has been dragged by its southwardly directed mass mi- 
gration. .\ glance at China has shown that there chain after chain 
among the parallel members of this body has sufifer<:'d an arc-like 
dragging off from north to south. The behavior here considered is 
analogous ; it appears, as though on the site of Naumann's Fossa magna 
the last still persistently ncmaining member of the gretit trunk range 
suffered the same fate and at the same time tore away with it the 
Akaischi portion of the Kuma Kii range, while it nearly detached it 
