Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 25.djvu/224

 of the village of Tungliu, twelve miles outside the Taiping gate, to the Chung-shan, where it attains a height of about 1700 feet, and thence descends again, forming a range of low hills running through the city from the Taiping-men, under the Kulow, and ending in some low hills outside the west wall, near the old Tsingliang-men. The dip is towards the S.E., at an angle of about 30° in the Chung-shan, but gradually decreasing at each extremity. The bed No. 3, as being composed of harder and more compact materials than the others, forms the summits of the hills, and in the Chung-shan presents a steep escarpment to the N.W., on the S.E. face gradually dipping under the later beds. Towards the east the upper beds (No. 4) run up into a small valley formed in the earlier rocks, where, close by a village called Pah-hwei-miau (see section, fig. 3, p. 124), they gradually thin out. Here some shafts have been sunk by the Chinese, and a small portion of coal extracted from a seam which approaches the surface. Coal-mines are also said to have been worked on the upper outcrop of the beds on the S.E. face of the Chung-shan, though when going over the country (previously, however, to receiving the information) I did not notice them. This upper outcrop is covered to a slight depth with the superficial deposits, which mask the sequence.

Fig. 5. — Section of Chung-shan near Nanking. (Scale 4 miles to 1 inch.)

1. Red Grits. 2. Dark-red Flagstones. 3. Quartzose Conglomerate. 4. Coal-bearing Rocks, overlain by later formations. 5. Haematite-bed.

From the Chung-shan, easterly and southerly, these rocks dip under the more modern deposits of the plain of Nanking, and appear in parts to have undergone considerable denudation. At Pah-hwei- miau I searched for some time for the outcrop of the coal-beds; but, owing to the manner in which the strata died out against the older rocks, it was not visible. The mines have been closed for some years, although partially worked during the siege of Nanking. Water and foul air have accumulated in the pits so as to render descent impossible, while most of the old inhabitants have lost their lives during the rebellion, or been dispersed over the country. From these circumstances, I have been unable to obtain a definite idea of the value of this coal-field, or of how many workable seams exist. Of the seam worked by the Chinese I could learn but little : some said it was 3 feet thick, some 8 ; but none of the actual miners could be found, they having all left the country. I was able to obtain a few specimens of the coal, which was of a bituminous slightly caking