Soluble organic matter had been separated from several palygorskite and bentonite samples in the Jiangsu-Anhui border area (across Jiangsu Province and Anhui Province) and Linze County in Gansu Province of China and was analyzed with the techniques and methods of organic geochemistry.The composition and distribution of hydrocarbons were analyzed by gas chromatography (GC).Organic stable carbon isotopic ratios (δ13C) in typical samples were determined.The abundance of soluble organic matter in all clay samples analyzed was low.In Jiangsu-Anhui samples,the preservation states of organic matter are different; hydrocarbons in organic matter have some features of aquatic plankton but are short of the input of terrigenous higher plants; organic δ13C in a palygorskite of Yongxiaoshan in Xuyi County,Jiangsu Province,is-6.72‰.These features may be typical of a sedimentary environment of closed or semi-closed and relatively isolated different waters near coast or seashore.On the contrary,in samples from Gansu,the preservation states of organic matter are good; the GC graphs of hydrocarbons show that the precursors of the organic matter are from a mixed source of aquatic organisms and land-sourced higher plants;organic δ13C of a palygorskite from Yangtai of Gansu is-15.62‰.It indicated that the sedimentary environment may be an inland salty lake.Preliminary results suggest that palygorskite minerals in the Jiangsu-Anhui area may be evolved from rapidly accumulated fine material or volcanic ash,but clays in Gansu Province may be transformed from terrigenous inorganic clastic components carried to the lake through river and then deposited.The generation process of the samples studied in the paper seems to be related to salty water.