82 RESEARCH IN CHINA. 
tive of a continuous rather than a faulted section. Comparison may be 
made with a section through the Huang-yang-shan of the Sin-t’ai district. 
The presence or absence of peripheral faulting may be indicated by 
physiographic facts. The maturely eroded surface of the mountain 
region extends down to the alluvial plains in groups of hills. If these 
are abruptly cut off along a well-defined face, the existence of a fault may 
be reasonably assumed; if the hills terminate with an approximate aline- 
ment, even though they be separated by deeply eroded valleys, faulting 
may be considered probable. If, on the other hand, the hills lessen in 
height toward the plain, extend irregularly into it, and become more 
and more isolated, we infer that the sculptured surface is continuous 
beneath the alluvium. So far as we have seen the marginal relations of 
the Shan-tung mountains in the vicinity of Tsi-nan-fu and of Po-shan, 
the latter relation is the existing one. 
Warping is the alternative to faulting. That is to say, the margins 
of the dome may be bent down instead of broken down. As stated in the 
preceding paragraph, the physiographic evidence indicates this relation. 
In the absence of demonstrative evidence of peripheral faulting, and in 
view of the long peninsulas and islands of hills which extend out into 
the sea and plains, it is most probable that the difference in elevation 
between the height of the Shan-tung dome and the depths of the surround- 
ing depressions is an effect of warping. It will appear in discussing the 
effects of warping and faulting in Central China, that a normal fault may 
arise upon a steeply warped surface and form its longitudinal continuation. 
Warping, therefore, does not exclude faulting, but it is believed to be more 
generally the fact about the peninsula of Shan-tung. 
Date of warping.—If we compare the physiography of the marginal 
districts of Shan-tung with that of the interior, we find that they are of 
closely similar character and in like stages of development; considering 
the nearness of the districts, the identity of the rocks, and the sameness 
of the activities of erosion, there can be no doubt but that the marginal 
and central features are of similar age; and this conclusion extends to 
the buried surfaces beneath the present level of the plain. As the marginal 
sculpture must have developed at a higher level than that which the 
surface beneath sea-level now occupies, it follows that the process of 
warping began (or continued) and resulted in the depression of the margin 
after the present physiographic type had been established. Warping is 
thus recognized to be a relatively modern effect. 
The depressions which surround Shan-tung are floored or filled with 
sediments, which began to accumulate as soon as any part of the surface 
sank to the level of aggradation by rivers, or below sea-level. If we could 
