382 RESEARCH IN CHINA. 
Nuclei are very rarely observable, and in no case is it possible to recog- 
nize the nature of such central masses as appear. In the majority of the 
spherules there is also no trace of concentric rings. In many, however, 
the rings appear as faint lines of color which pass through the crystals of 
calcite without deviation (Plate LI, Fig. C). Evidently these bands 
of minute impurities were present in the original oolite and were simply 
absorbed without disturbance during the crystallization of the carbonate.* 
The peripheral fringe, so prominent in some of the Chinese oolites, is 
absent or very poorly developed in these slides. It never consists of the 
long feather-like crystals which appear in No. 143, but when present at all 
is composed of short, radially placed grains. One of the significant features 
of the variety is the relation between the matrix and the spheroids: on the 
margins of the latter there are many crystals of calcite which protrude from 
the matrix into the body of the corpuscle, each individual grain being 
partly clear and partly brownish. This proves that the entire mass of the 
rock has crystallized without regard to the original structure. 
These oolites of the Ch’ang-hia limestone differ from the red oolites in 
the absence of distinct nuclei and radial streaks, and in the feeble preserva- 
tion of the concentric structure. With the waning of these features there 
comes a great increase in the size of the crystals and in the perfection of their 
forms. There can be little doubt that all these differences are connected 
with an advance in the crystallization of the mass.t This variety corre- 
sponds to what Zirkel{f has termed ‘“‘oolithoid.’”’ Von Richthofen, who 
gives an excellent account of these peculiar black bodies in the Chinese lime- 
stones, applied to them the name “‘globulite.”” He believed that they were 
distinct from oolites and was inclined to regard them as calcified organisms.§ 
Crystalline gray oolite, No. 11.—A somewhat unusual phase of the 
Ch’ang-hia limestone. Specimen taken from the basal portion of the for- 
mation in Man-t’o-shan near Ch’ang-hia, Shan-tung. This represents an 
advanced stage in the alteration of the gray oolites. Through the dense 
clear-gray ground-mass of this rock are scattered numerous shining 
* Dr. E. Lérenthey has described a rock from near Si-ning-fu, Kan-su, which seems to resemble this 
specimen closely. He remarked upon the faint concentric bands observed in the crystalline nodules, but 
regarded them as the beginning of an oolitic structure instead of a last vestige of sucha feature. (Széchenyi 
Expedition Report, I, p. 259.) 
{ An oolite, resembling these specimens in its granular texture and absence of the concentric struc- 
ture, has been figured by Barbour and Torrey: American Journal of Science, 1890, XL, p. 78. 
t Lehrbuch der Petrographie, 2! auflage, 1, 485. 
§ In his report (China, 11, p. 223), he says: ‘Regarding the globulitic lime (bodies) one may only 
guess that they are little pellets derived from organisms. It appears that with the Primordial fauna 
little organic bodies of very general distribution came to rest in the calcareous deposits of the sea-floor 
and were calcified without leaving behind any distinctive structure.’’—(Translation.) 
