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

70 GEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN
CHAPTER VIII.1
GEOLOGICAL SKETCH OF THE ROUTE FROM THE GREAT
WALL TO THE SIBERIAN FRONTIER.
THE route, here described, after following for about 100 miles that along which
the measurements of MM. Fuss and v. Bunge were made, leaves this and remains
about 60 miles to the west of it for most of the distance, joining it again in about
latitude 47~ N.
The journey was made in the months of November and December, the thermometer ranging from + 150 to - 28~ F., with an almost incessant, strong, northwest wind. This, and the fact that we travelled seventeen hours a day, will, I
think, be a sufficient excuse for the meagreness of the information. Nothing but
the absence of all geological observations over this immense region, prompts the
insertion of the following scanty notes.
Nov. 21, 1864. Leaving Kalgan we ascended to the plateau by the Tutinza road.2
For the first two or three days the intensely cold winds made it impossible to take
notes. The great volcanic formation, which we have seen forming the southern
edge of the table-land for a long distance to the westward, extends from thirty to
fifty miles in this direction, as the only rock in place, and the conformation of the
surface is similar to that with which we have become acquainted in describing the
journey to the west, only the valleys are generally broader and more shallow.
During the next fifty miles our route crossed several low ridges, chiefly granitic,
the intervening plains being covered with the detritus of quartz and metamorphic
sandstone. This is succeeded by a rolling country with hills of red granite, diorite,
and greenstone porphyry, which continues to beyond the low granite ridge of Mt.
Ugundui.3 The fragments on the surface of the plains were mostly of granite and
quartzitic sandstone, together with scattered pieces of lava and pebbles of chalcedony, agate, etc.
Nov. 26. After passing Mt. Ugundui the character of the country underwent a
marked change. Our road lay, from the last-named mountain to the Mingan hills,
through a depression. In the distance the flat outline of the plateau was seen on
all sides, the intervening country being cut upr into isolated knobs and ridges by
numerous water-courses and lake beds. The structure of the knobs shows them to
See Section on P1. T.
X This portion of the road, as far as the summit of the plateau, was described in a previous chapter.
S Many of the names of places, etc, used in this sketch are given on Klaproth's large map of Central Asia.