Fiji RESEARCH IN CHINA. 
Obrutschov, and ourselves, and similar observations have been made in 
passing, but interpretations are not always the same. The route approaches 
the hills from ‘T’ai-yiian-fu in the vicinity of T’ai-ytian-hién, and reaches 
the town of Tsin-tzi-chén, which is particularly attractive because of 
the large springs there flowing from the limestone. The rock is the lime- 
stone of the upper part of the Sinian system, which is here brought up on 
an anticline in which the strata dip 5° northeast and 20° southwest. The 
arch is sufficiently broad and high to raise the limestone above the level 
of the plain for several miles and to throw the outcrop of the overlying 
coal-measures back into the range. From Tsin-tzi-chén to Kiau-chéng-hién 
the coal-measures form the face of the range, but exhibit undulations 
which constitute two major synclines with an intermediate anticline. 
From Kiau-chéng-hién to W6én-shui-hién the red sandstones above the coal- 
€0s 
c ca = * \ WS ee 
eh *- ite oe 
i ne i a aes 
Fic. 52 (Willis)—W06n-shui-hién, Shan-si. Diagrammatic section of the Sinian in the Shi-hia-shan, as 
seen from the main road together with inferred relation to the Shan-si coal-measures and later strata. 
a= basin of Fén-chéu-fu filled with Huang-t’u (Qh); b= lower slopes, probably of Pre-Cambrian 
strata; cc= limestones of Sinian system; d= Shan-si coal-measures; e = post-Carboniferous sandstones, 
probably Permo-Mesozoic. 


measures constitute the surface in a nearly flat attitude, and coal-bearing 
strata sink deeper in the corresponding broad syncline. This syncline is 
bounded on the west by a high range of mountains, the Shi-hia-shan*, which 
extends from the plain in a direction north by east. We were told that 
along its southeastern base there is a valley in which coal is extensively 
mined—that is to say, there is in the valley the outcrop of the western 
limb of the wide syncline whose eastern side is near Kiau-chéng. The 
main mass of the range is composed of Sinian limestones which exhibit 
step-like folding, the strata being alternately nearly vertical and nearly 
horizontal (Fig. 52). 
The range is described by von Richthofen as follows: 
On the way to the great city of W6n-shui-hién one sees the escarpment of the plateau 
overtowered by a rugged mountain range, which rises at least 2,500 feet above the plain. 
One soon obtains the full view from the south. In sharp contrast to the horizontal strati- 
fication of the varicolored rocks of the plateau, one sees a massive system of limestones, 
which look dark, but which betray their real color in the yellow fracture planes, and which 
rise with steep dip from the valley. One is inclined to take this for a much older mountain 
system, but further observation does not justify this hypothesis. The range of the moun- 
tains from northeast to southwest comes to an end. ‘The plain extends in a wide embay- 
ment toward the west. As the highway trends diagonally across the embayment I could 
see the forms of the mountain slope in its westward continuation only from a distance. If 

*Shi-hsia-schan in Richthofen’s spelling. 
