80 RESEARCH IN CHINA. 
This is an effect of adjustment incident to the great recession of the fault- 
scarps. In any region of modern faulting we observe that the scarp is 
more or less deeply dissected by ravines, which originate upon its steep 
slope at right angles to the fault, and which, by virtue of their great fall, 
grow rapidly into the upthrown mass. The autogenous brooks are favored 
bya low point of discharge and an elevated source. They take the shortest 
route, and in contest with those streams which flow parallel to the fault 
have a decided advantage. ‘The capture and diversion of other streams 
to their courses is the natural result, and is associated with the establish- 
ment of divides at those points between the major fault valleys where 
the retrogressive work of the autogenous streams is balanced. A good 
example of this development of drainage is seen in the Sin-t’ai district, 
which happens to extend from one great fault valley to another across a 
watershed that is established in spite of, rather than in accordance with, 
the irregular structures and diverse rock types of the district. 
It follows from the development of the autogenous brooks, that moun- 
tain ranges resulting from faulting are ultimately cut into sections, which, 
other things being equal, are of similar length. The mountain masses thus 
separated from one another become, as the valleys widen, isolated moun- 
tain groups; and this is what has happened in the case of the T’ai-shan 
chain and its counterpart southwest of Sin-t’ai. A similar but less orderly 
effect is observed where the faulting is more complex. 
Character of relief before faulting.—In the study of physiographic fea- 
tures it is often true that the summits of elevations are found to exhibit 
features of a previous topographic cycle, which have not yet been oblit- 
erated by the subsequent effects of deformation and erosion. Where 
such an older cycle reached the development of a peneplain, flat remnants 
of the plain may sometimes be detected; or, when this is not the case, 
there may be a constant relation of heights on rocks of unlike character, 
which justifies the inference of its former existence. During our journey 
in Shan-tung we searched for evidence of an older topographic surface than 
that which is now developing, but failed to find it. The skeletonized moun- 
tains bear no flats which might be considered remnants of an ancient 
plain; the former relief, whatever it was, has been so modified by fault- 
ing and erosion that its character is no longer expressed in the existing 
topography. We are thus without means of determining definitely the 
topographic aspects of the province prior to faulting. There is, however, 
basis for an inference. The surfaces of the upthrown blocks do not exhibit 
conspicuous peaks, rising high above their general elevation, as they prob- 
ably would had there been great mountains before the faulting occurred. 
The downthrown areas are flattish. This flatness is, no doubt, in large 
