CHARACTER PROFILES 



127 



Such elemental lines in a landscape are the true profiles or their pro- 

 jections in perspective of the protruding portions of the lithosphere, and 

 they may be referred to as character profiles. These profiles are the lines 

 that would be selected by an artist in preparing an outline sketch of the 

 landscape in pen and ink. Several of them may naturally be present 

 together in greater or less perfection in the same landscape. 



Figure 3. — Some Lines of Profile each cJiaracteristic of a special Type of Landscape 



a, Dominant profile in a youthful erosional stage ; h, ttie Hogarthian beauty line 

 which recurs in mature landscapes ; c, character profile of maturely eroded and partially 

 submerged district ; 0, recurring element in profile of uplifted coast region ; e, profile 

 which recurs in table mountains ; f, characteristic profile of fold mountains ; g, profile 

 line of volcanic cone ; h, profile produced by mountain glaciation ; i, the characteristic 

 profile from continental glaciation. 



SPACE UNITS IN PROFILES 



The physiographer who has given special study to the profiles of many 

 districts will further have noted a regularity in the recurrence of the ele- 

 mentary lines or a further subdivision of them. The larger notches in 

 horizon lines are most of them waterways, at least during certain seasons, 

 so that any regularity in their space relations will indicate a more or less 

 uniform interval separating the lines in the drainage network. Such 

 subequal spacing of streams has been often noted and by many observers. 

 The late Professor Shaler believed that the mat of vegetation which 

 covers the ground in humid regions largely interferes with a perfect ex- 

 pression of river spacing.^ The importance of this factor was brought 

 vividly home to the writer during a cruise along the west coast of Norway 

 in the summer of 1910. The course of the steamer among the islands 

 and skerries of the Norwegian coast offered unexcelled opportunities for 



2 N. S. Shaler : Spacing of rivers with reference to hypothesis of baseleveling, 

 tin of the Geological Society of America, vol. 10, 1899, pp. 263-276. 



Bulle- 



