Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Research in China, Vol. 3 of 3: The Cambrian Faunas of China; A Report on Ordovician Fossils Collected in Eastern Asia in 1903-04; A Report on Upper Paleozoic Fossils Collected in China in 1903-04
When looking over the descriptions of the stratigraphic sections of the Paleozoic formations of China by Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen [china, 1882, vol. 2] and their contained Cambrian fossils described by Dr. W. Dames [china, 1883, vol. 4, pp. 1 - 33] from Liau-tung, and Dr. Emanuel Kayser [pp. 34 I was impressed with the necessity of having the strati graphic sections studied in detail, and extensive collections of fossils made, in order that comparisons of value might be instituted between the Cambrian sections and faunas of the western portion of North America and the Paleo zoic sections and their contained faunas in eastern Asia. This project was held in abeyance for eighteen years, and had it not been for the support of the Carnegie Institution of Washington it might not have been consummated.
Dr. Bailey Willis has given, in the preface of volume 1, part 1, of Re search in China, 1907, a brief statement of the events that led to the sending of an expedition in his charge and the securing of data and collections by him and his associate geologist, Mr. Eliot Blackwelder.
On the return of Messrs. Willis and Blackwelder, I made a preliminary study of the Cambrian fossils and submitted to them the results of the study bearing on the interpretation of the various geological sections in which the fossils occurred. These were included in their description and discussion of the stratigraphy of Shan-tung, Shan-si, and Shen-si. Mr. Blackwelder also made a rapid reconnaissance of the southwestern portion of the province of Liau-tung, Manchuria, and identified certain Cambrian formations, but did not find any fossils.
From the collections made by Baron von Richthofen, it was evident that a considerable Cambrian fauna existed in the western part of Liau-tung, so I delayed final publication of the description and discussion of the Cambrian collections made by Messrs. Willis and Blackwelder, in the hope that material could be secured from that region. Learning in the spring of 1909 that Prof. Joseph P. Iddings, of the University of Chicago, was about to visit Japan and China in connection with his study of eruptive rocks, I induced him to visit Manchuria and make a collection of Cambrian fossils for the Smith somian Institution from the island of T schang-hsing-tau, east of Niang-niang kung, in the province of Liau-tung. He was so fortunate as to secure the services of Li San, Dr. Bailey Willis's interpreter, who was also a good collector, and they obtained a large number of specimens, representing over fifty species of invertebrate fossils.
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