156 RESEARCH IN CHINA. 
The normal faulting belongs to a later period than the folding, since 
the faults traverse the folds and have not been affected by them. The 
phenomena are very similar to the normal faulting observed in Shan-tung, 
and one is strongly reminded of the conditions in that province by 
the occurrence of conglomerates, which overlie the coal-measures in the 
Ning-shan basin as they do in the vicinity of Sin-t’ai, Shan-tung. There 
is, however, a difference, which seems to indicate that the faults near 
Ning-shan are the older, In Shan-tung, although the fault-scarps are 
eroded far back and the upthrust blocks are deeply dissected, the relief 
due to faulting still exists, and many masses of gneiss, which were elevated 
in consequence of the faulting, maintain their higher position above 
downthrown limestones. At Ning-shan the great normal fault along the 
northwestern side of the basin is no longer distinguishable as a topographic 
feature. On the contrary, the gneiss, which must have been raised at 
least 2,000 feet, 600 meters, above the Paleozoic strata northwest of Ning- 
shan, is now eroded to a lowland, while the limestones maintain a rela- 
tively notable altitude. The general elevation of the gneiss is now about 
1,500 feet, 450 meters, above sea, whereas that in the mountain peaks of 
limestone reaches 2,000 feet, 600 meters. Erosion of the gneiss has thus 
been sufficiently rapid, as compared with that of the limestone, to com- 
pletely reverse differences of altitude amounting to between 2,000 and 
3,000 feet, 600 and goo meters. ‘This fact seems to point to a somewhat 
earlier inception or more rapid development of faulting at Ning-shan as 
compared with Shan-tung. We have seen that in Shan-tung the normal 
faults were probably of Eocene age, and we are thus led to assign the 
normal faulting at Ning-shan to the beginning of the Tertiary or possibly 
to the close of the Mesozoic. 
