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II.—On a Collection of Trilobites from the Upper Cambrian of Shantung, North China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

Henry Woodward
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Extract

Continuing the notice of Herr H. Monke's paper on the Trilobite-bearing limestone slabs of Yen-tsy-yai, the author observes:—The very dense and solid, slightly arenaceous limestones of Yen-tsy-yai consist of horizontal slabs (from 1–2½ cm. thick) of a dark bluish-grey colour, [p. 109] Whilst showing no traces of fossils in their interior, the limestone slabs are on one side (as shown on pl. ix) often completely covered with the remains of Trilobite carapaces, besides which are found only isolated very minute shells of Brachiopoda. Between them are here and there irregular, lengthened furrows, which may be the tracks of the Trilobites; on the corresponding opposite pails of the slabs are similarly shaped vermiform protuberances. It follows that the fossiliferous side is to be considered as the natural upper part of the slabs. In a certain number of the slabs either both sides or one only are covered besides by a thin argillaceous stratum, which equally contains, though less frequently, delicate remains of fossils; in all the other slabs the fossils present themselves en relief and often rest on a small base of limestone, and therefore convey the impression of having been originally covered by a thin argillaceous stratum, which later on was washed away by water.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 2 , Issue 6 , June 1905 , pp. 251 - 255
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1905

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References

page 251 note 1 Our Plate XIII is not copied from Herr H. Monke's beautiful plate, but is taken from a part of the fine slab presented to the British Museum by the Rev. Samuel Couling, M.A., Ching-chow-fu, Kiao-chow, China, and was evidently obtained from the very same quarry which furnished the slabs forwarded to Berlin by Herr Bergmeister F. Koerter, from the Upper Sinic Limestones of Yen-tsy-yai, where a considerable trade in these slabs, crowded with remains of Trilobites, appears to be carried on by the Chinese, under the title of ‘petrified swallows’!

page 252 note 1 This seems less surprising when it is borne in mind that the higher classes in China are very great connoisseurs of natural curiosities, which they purchase and cause to be mounted as articles of bijouterie and vertu. Natural stones of all kinds cut and squared up or cut and polished are sold in the shops of cities in China, often long distances from the localities where the specimens were originally obtained. Mr. Crick has referred to this circumstance in connection with the celebrated ‘pagoda-stones’ (sections of Orthoceras), which, being cut into slabs and mounted in frames to form ornamental panels and screens, may now be met with as trade articles in almost any part of China.—H. W.

page 254 note 1 “Etude de quelques Trilobites de Chine”: Bull. Soc. Géol France sér III (1899), p. 499, t. 27.

page 254 note 2 American Journal of Science, ser. III (1888), vol. xxxvi, p. 165.

page 254 note 3 They are probably identical with Bergeron's Olenoides Leblanci, op. cit., p. 506, fig. 5, also seen on slab, pl. xiii, fig. 5.