Geological researches in China, Mongolia, and Japan, during the years 1862-1865.

CHINA, MONGOLIA, AND JAPAN. 93
Numerous remains of ancient workings, by this method, are found in the neighborhood.
Throughout this region the forest is dense; among the trees I noticed elms and
a wild mulberry with black fruit. Fierce, large flies, of two kinds not seen on the
sea-shore, swarm in these woods, covering horse and rider, and leaving bleeding
wounds wherever they strike. The creek abounds in mountain trout and salmon.
August 14th. Returning to Kunnui on the sea-shore, we followed the beach to
the village of Woshimanbe.
August 15th. At this village we left the bay to cross over to the west coast. For
several miles the road lay over the terrace belt, here covered with drift. At the
divide we found a broad, marshy tract through which a large creek winds on its
way to the Japan sea. This stream we descended in a small flatboat.
The prevailing rock across this low part of the ridge was, so far as I could judge,
an argillaceous deposit, apparently the same that forms the terraces.
The forest contained, chiefly, large beech, birch, and maple trees, with oaks and
scattered firs, and the usual dense undergrowth of cane. The banks of the streams
were lined with water willows. The creeks abound in trout, and the gravelly bottom is often nearly hidden by colonies of unio. As we approached the bay of Odaszu
the country became more open, and leaving the creek we descended over two terraces of drift to the village of Odaszu on the sea.
The southern shore of this small bay is shallow and shelving, with a broad beach;
but the eastern and western sides are rocky, the rocky bluffs descending into the
sea, a feature common to all the west coast, so far as we followed it, and indeed to
the shores of all the Japanese islands.
August 16th. Leaving Odaszu we continued our journey northward along the
coast. Here, also, high terraces face the sea, but they are formed of the tufa-conglomerate formation, the level surface being due to a recent deposit of gravel and
sand. This conglomerate is traversed near Odaszu by dykes of a dark gray rock,
much.weathered, containing crystals of a triclinic felspar, and opalescent chalcedony. The conglomerate at Isoya is traversed by dykes of an amorphous rock
containing crystals of triclinic felspar.
Near Isoya there is a deposit consisting of beds of sandstone, argillaceous material, and volcanic ashes,l with fragments of pumice, and also of the argillite which
has been mentioned as occurring at Washinoki and Kunnui with a vermiform
fossil. The pieces of pumice contain beautiful double-pyramid crystals of quartz.
This deposit is younger than the neighboring tufa-conglomerate, which had suffered
much from erosion before the deposition of the beds in question. It continues
northward till it abuts against a mass of volcanic rock, that forms the headland
south of the mouth of the Shiribetz river. This stream rises nearly north of Cape
Edomo, and flows westward through a fine, broad valley. All the gravel brought
down by the river seemed to be trachytic detritus.
1 For the interesting results of a microscopic examination of this material, see Mr. Edwards' Letter
(spec. No. 11), Appendix 3.