This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. http://books.google.com v< ,.,• « ^$fcl% ,• • ?» y • •• - - • aHQJNraS'aNVIZI ••♦: ^5b Smithsonian Contributions to Hnotolcogc. 202 GEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES - '- - _^ IS CHINA, MONGOLIA, &#fr JAPAN, DURING THE YEARS 1862 TO 1865. BY _ — J RAPHAEL JUMTELLY./ j WASHINGTON CITY: PUBLISHED BY THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. [JANUARY, 1867.] SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNOWLEDGE. 202 GEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES CHINA, MONGOLIA, AND JAPAN, DURING THE YEARS 1862 TO 1865. BY RAPHAEL PUMPELLY. [aCCEPTED FOR I'0BLICatION, JaNUarY, 1855. J 209712 This memoir, having been approved by the National Academy of Sciences, has been accepted for publication by the Smithsonian Institution. Joseph Henry, Secretary S. I. • •. • • •. COLLINS, FRIXTPR, PHILADELPHIA. PREFACE. The material for the following pages was collected since 1860. Leaving the Eastern States in that year, and crossing the plains to Arizona, I remained there nearly a year in charge of silver mines. Being forced by the Indian troubles to abandon that territory, I entered Mexico, and after a midsummer journey over the deserts of the Pacific coast, between Sonora and California, reached the latter State. Leaving California with one companion, Prpf. William P. Blake, both of us engaged by the Japanese Government to explore the island of Yesso, we sailed for Japan via the Sandwich islands. The engagement with the Japanese Government lasted but little more than a year, when it was suddenly brought to an end by the fierce political troubles of that time. It was during hasty journeys of reconnoissance that the notes relating to Yesso were jotted down, and at a time when I hoped to be able to make a much more thorough study of the geology of Japan. It was with true regret that I left the service of a government whose courtesy had made a lasting impression on my memory, and with whose struggles for progress as against exclusiveness I deeply sympathized. Crossing to China, after a short visit to Nagasaki, I ascended the Yangtse Kiang into Central Hunan, and to the frontier of Sz'chuen, a great part of the journey being made in a small Chinese boat, and occupying four months of the spring and summer of 1863. The autumn and winter of 1863 and spring of 1864 were spent in examining the Coal fields west of Peking, for the Chinese Government, and in journeys in Northern China and Southern Mongolia. I spent the summer of 1864 at Nagasaki. In the winter of 1864 and 1865, in company with Mr. T. Walsh, of Japan, and Mr. F. R. St. John, Secretary of the British Legation at Peking, I crossed into Siberia, and thence, alone, travelled overland to St. Petersburg and Paris. Thus the journeys which furnished the data for the following pages were as fol lows : — I. In 1862 over the ground indicated in the sketch map of southern Yesso, PI. No. 8, and excursions in the neighborhood of Yokohama. II. In 1863 excursions in the vicinity of Nagasaki ; a journey up the Yangtse Kiang to the boundary between Hupeh and Sz'chuen, and into southern Hunan ; and excursions from Peking into the mountains of northwestern Chihli. III. In 1864 a journey in southern Mongolia, along the edge of the plateau to (iii) iy PREFACE. - near the great N. E. bend of the Hwang Ho, returning to Peking by a route south of the plateau and within the Great Wall; and finally, part of the journey homeward, from China across the plateau and the Gobi desert to Siberia. With the exception of the itinerary in Yesso, which was made while in the ser vice of the Japanese Government, and the description of the coal basin west of Peking, which was examined at the request of the Chinese Government, all the material was collected on journeys made at my expense. Ignorance of the Chinese and Mongolian languages, the difficulty of making observations in western China, owing to the hostility of the people at the time, the intense cold of the winter journey across the plateau into Siberia, and the fact that the enterprise was a private one, will, it is hoped, serve as excuses for asking the indulgence of the reader in view of the incompleteness of the work. I have attempted throughout to keep the generalizations separate from the record cf observations and other data on which they rest. I have followed, generally, the orthography of Dr. S. W. Williams for Chinese proper names, and that of Klaproth for Mongolian names, where these could be found on his great map of Central Asia, but in many instances they are written from the pronunciation of the Tartar guides. In giving Japanese and Aino names I have followed very closely the Japanese spelling. For assistance in preparing the present work I am indebted to Dr. J. S. -Newberry for undertaking the description of the fossil plants, and to Mr. Arthur Mead Edwards for the examination of infusorial earths, etc., under the microscope, and to Prof. G. J. Brush and Mr. James A. Macdonald for analyses of coals. A considerable amount of valuable material consisting mainly of Paleozoic, Ter tiary, and Post-tertiary shells, and of rocks, has not yet been worked up. I would return thanks to Prof. J. D. Whitney both for many valuable hints, and for the use of his excellent library. I am deeply indebted to Dr. W. Lockhart, Mr. C. Murray, and Dr. S. W. Williams, and Rev. Mr. Edkins, of Peking, for valuable assistance in making re searches in Chinese geographical literature. The diagrams in the text, and the plates, I. to VIII., at the. end, are executed in copper relief engraving by Messrs. E. R. Jewett & Co. of Buffalo ; plate IX. is cut in wood by Mr. C. Murry, of Now York. R. P. New Yoek, Aug. 1, 1866. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. FAQS On the General Outlines of Eastern Asia . 1 CHAPTER II. Geological Observations in the Basin of the Yangtse Kiang .... 4 CHAPTER III. Observations in the Province of Cninu ....... 10 CHAPTER IV. Structure of the Southern Edge of the Great Table-Land, and of Northern Shansi and Chihli .......... 25 CHAPTER V. The Delta-Plain and the Historical Changes in the Course of the Yellow River . 46 CHAPTER YI. On the General Geology of CniNA Proper; A Generalization Based on Observa tions, AND ON THE MINERAL PRODUCTIONS, AND THE CONFIGURATION OF THE SURFACE . 51 CHAPTER VII. The Sinian System of Elevation ........ 67 CHAPTER VIII. Geological Sketch of the Route from the Great Wall to the Siberian Frontier . 70 CHAPTER IX. Geological Itineraries of Journeys on the Island of Yesso in Northern Japan . 79 CHAPTER X. Mineral Productions of China ........ 109 APPENDIX. Appendix No. 1. — Description of Fossil Plants from the Chinese Coal-Bearing Rocks. By ' J. S. Newberry, M. D. ng Appendix No. 2. — Analyses of Chinese and Japanese Coals. By James A. Mac- donald, M. A. ......... 123 Appendix No. 3. — Letter from Mr. Arthur Mead Edwards on the Results of an Examina tion under the Microscope of some Japanese Infusorial Earths, and other Deposits of China and Mongolia .. .126 (v) LIST OF DIAGRAMS. Figure 1. Section near Chaitang ..... 14 Figures 2 and 3. Illustrating the manner of working the Tatsan mine 16 Figures 4 and 5. Sections at Chingshui 17 Figure 6. Section near Fangshan (Ilien) . 20 Figure 7. Section near Siuenhwa (Fu) 23 Figure 8. Section near Kalgan 23 Figure 9. Section near Hakodade . 81) Figure 10. Japanese lead furnace . 81 Figure 11. Section at Cape Wosatzubc 85 Figure 12. Sulphur furnace on Mt. Esan . 87, Figures 13 and 14. Illustrating the Japanese method of washing auriferous deposits 02 Figure 15. Concentrating trough of the Japanese miners .... 02 Figure 16. Section on Mt. Iwaounobori ...... 05 Figure 17. Illustrating progressive alteration of rock under solfatara-action 06 Figure 18. Lava flow near Kumaishi ...... 102 LIST OF PLATES. Plate 1. Section along the Yangtse Kiang, from the Pacific Ocean to Pingshan (Hieu), in Western Sz'chuen. Plate 2. Route map of the Yang Ho District. Plate 3. Geological sections in Northern Chihli and Southern Mongolia. Plates 4 and 5. Maps representing the historical changes in the course of the Yellow River or Hwang Ho. Plate 6. Hypothetical map of the geological structure of China. Plate 7. Map of the Sinian (N. E., S. W.) system of elevation of Eastern Asia. Section across the table-land of Central Asia from the Plain of Peking to near Kiachta, in Eastern Siberia. Plate 8. Geological route-sketch. Southern Yesso, with sections. Plate 9. Fossil plants from the Chinese coal-bearing rocks. (vii) GEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN CHINA, MONGOLIA, AND JAPAN. CHAPTER I. ON THE GENERAL OUTLINES OF EASTERN ASIA. If we examine a Mercator Chart of Eastern Asia, we are instantly struck with the parallelism of many of its most important features. A straight line {A, B, Pl. VII) drawn in the longer axis of the Gulf of Pechele, trending nearly northeast (N. 47° E.), if prolonged in both directions, will be found to coincide with the entire middle course of the Yangtse, between Sz'chuen and Yunnan, with the longer axis of the great delta-plain between the highlands of Shantung and western Chihli, with the mouth and lower course of the Liau river, with the valley of the lower Amur, and finally crossing the Sea of Ochotsk, it is parallel to, and nearly coincides with, the direction of the Gulf of Penjinsk. Using this line as a standard of reference, we find that the long straight western shores of the two greatest indentations, the Sea of Ochotsk and the Bay of Bengal, are nearly in a line with each other and parallel to our standard.