88 RESEARCH IN CHINA. 
soil derived from unknown sedimentary rocks, while the northwestern 
side is bounded by the Fu-chéu series. 
In the vicinity of Siung-ytié-chéng, and thence southward to the 
edge of the hills, the bed-rock is a massive gneissoid granite, which consists 
of biotite, smoky quartz, and the usual feldspars. The texture is moder- 
ately coarse, but not porphyritic. In this locality the granite is deeply 
decayed, being so soft at the surface that the roadways have been worn 
into it to a depth of several feet, just as elsewhere in China they have been 
lowered in the loess. With the exception of a few dikes of porphyry 
and basalt and still fewer veins of pegmatite, no other rocks were found 
associated with the granite. The facts observed in this locality do not 
serve todetermine the age of this granite or granite-gneiss; on the north the 
exposure was lost under the alluvium of the valley; on the south it is in 
contact with more recent lavas. In addition to the gneiss, von Richthofen 
discriminates gneiss-granite and Korea granite. The latter contains horn- 
blende and is markedly porphyritic; it is also devoid of gneissic structure. 
The Siung-yiié granite seems, therefore, distant from the Korea granite. 
The gneiss north of Siung-yiié-chéng is described by von Richthofen as 
varying from a true mica-gneiss to granite in which the schistose texture is 
absent.* From this we may infer that the mica-granite of this locality is 
a part of the basal gneissic complex and is comparable to the granites 
belonging to the T’ai-shan complex of Shan-tung. 
Ta-ku-shan sertes.—This series of metamorphic rocks, which is reported 
by von Richthofen from many places in Liau-tung, came to my notice in 
two localities only. In the hills immediately east of the Russian station 
at Ta-shi-k’iau, white quartzite dips 40° to 60° toward the south. This 
member, which appears to be about 300 feet thick, forms the crest and 
southern slope of the hill. For the most part the rock is pure and well 
consolidated, but it includes thin local strata of sericite-schists, which 
probably represent shaly partings in the original sandstone. Beneath the 
quartzite appears marble, which was quarried at that point by the Rus- 
sians for the purpose of making lime. It is usually a gray, finely crystalline 
rock banded with dark colors, but there are also layers of considerable 
thickness which are of pale flesh color. Underneath the calcareous member, 
argillaceous schists appear in conformable relation to the marble. This 
lowest member comprises black argillites which are in places slaty, a hard 
maroon-colored slate, and crumpled gray phyllites containing numerous 
small red spots, which originate from the weathering of magnetite crystals. 
What lies beneath these schists was not observed, nor was the series found 
in contact at this point with rocks of different age. 

* “Er (Gneiss) geht zuweilen in Gneissgranit uber, in welchem die schieferige Textur bis zu Unkenn- 
barkeit zurtcktritt.’’ (China, vol. 1, p. 72.) 
