7O RESEARCH IN CHINA. 
Rate of displacement.—It is not supposed that these normal faults, 
having displacements of 500 to 10,000 feet, 150 to 3,000 meters, developed 
suddenly; neither is it thought that the movement was so gradual as to 
produce no inequalities of the surface. The latter could only be true if 
the rate of general denudation were the same as that of dislocation. We 
shall see in discussing the structural facts of Shan-si and Shen-si (Chapter 
IX), that there are in that part of China normal faults, which have so 
developed as to produce mountain walls 4,000 to 5,000 feet, 1,200 to 1,500 
meters, high; we are inclined to think that the dislocations in Shan-tung 
resulted in similar topographic effects, or in other words, that the rate 
of dislocation was notably more rapid than that of general denudation. 
There is another process with which the rate of displacement may be 
compared, namely, that of corrasion. Did displacement on these normal 
faults proceed more rapidly than the deepening of channels by the major 
streams of the region? If so, we should find the rivers flowing from the 
upthrown blocks to the downthrown blocks; that is, in a consequent 
relation to the structure. If we examine the maps with reference to this 
point, we see that in most cases the rivers of the Sin-t’ai district do flow 
from the upthrow to the downthrow, and may, accordingly, be regarded 
as consequent streams, determined in their courses by the effects of fault- 
ing. ‘There are two cases to the contrary, both of them in relation to the 
fault Ng. Two tributaries of the W6n-ho, flowing north, cross this fault 
from the downthrow to the upthrow, apparently as antecedent streams. 
Both of them are, however, peculiarly situated. The one further west, 
which joins the W6n-ho near Yen-chuang, follows the fracture zone of 
the fault Nh. Its course may readily be explained as one adjusted to an 
easily corraded zone of fractured rock, especially as the effect of faulting 
is to introduce a belt of soft gneiss and schist between the relatively hard 
limestone masses of the Kiu-lung-shan and the Huang-yang-shan. In the 
long cycle of erosion which has elapsed since the faulting occurred, the 
development of a valley in this position by retrogressive erosion and piracy 
could hardly fail to take place. The eastern one of the two tributaries 
may also be considered as having been developed in the natural growth 
of the Wo6n-ho river, the master stream of the region, which here lies so 
near at hand that it would be a remarkable fact if it had not drawn to 
itself the drainage of this district. 
We conclude, therefore, that the evidence to be found in the somewhat 
limited Sin-t’ai district indicates a consequent relation of the streams to 
the relief produced by normal faulting; and this inference is sustained on 
broader grounds when we consider the relation of the great valleys of the 
W6n-ho, Siau-w6n-ho, and Tung-wén-ho to the major normal faults. 
