PHYSIOGRAPHY OF NORTHWESTERN CHINA. 207 
north and west of Féu-p’ing-hién are heights of 3,500 feet, 1,000 meters, 
which are conspicuous buttresses of the main range. In 15 to 20 miles, 
32 kilometers, we reach the divide, which is the boundary between the 
provinces of Chi-li and Shan-si, and on which the passes are 4,800 feet, 
1,450 meters, or more; and the summits 6,000 to 7,000 feet, 1,800 to 2,100 
meters above sea. The mountains of this eastern slope are angular in 
contour and ragged in profile. There are no smooth flowing curves, 
scarcely any soil-covered surfaces. Bare and sharply cut, they exhibit 
every bed and joint of the ancient igneous complex from which they are 
carved. (Fig. A, Plate XVII). They lie in a zone of climate unfavorable 
to protective vegetation, but this fact alone is not sufficient to account 
for their aspect, the more effective cause for which is their nearness to the 
very energetic river, the Sha-ho. 
The valley of the Sha-ho above Féu-p’ing-hién is peculiar. In direct 
line with its course past the city is a valley occupied by a brawling brook 
which has a rapid fall in its lower stretch, but less fall in the upper reach. 
At the head of the brook, 5 miles, 8 kilometers, above its mouth, the divide 
consists of the Huang-t’u formation, that is, of loess and stream gravels 
interbedded, filling an old channel. From the divide a rivulet runs north- 
west in inverted direction. To the mouth of this brook the Sha-ho comes 
from the northwest. It meanders in a canyon, one wall of which is a 
precipice 1,500 feet, 450 meters, high, and which is much narrower than 
the direct valley of the brook. About 8 miles above Féu-p’ing-hién the 
Sha-ho forks, the main river coming still from the northwest, a smaller 
branch from the southwest. This southwest fork of the Sha-ho passes 
Li-yiian-p’u in direct course for Fou-p’ing-hién, but turns into a canyon, 
in which it meanders in small oxbows to the northwest branch. 
It is evident that the direct valley from Li-yiian-p’u to Féu-ping-hién 
was formerly the course of the southwest fork, which was diverted by the 
cutting of the relatively young canyon. The conditions under which this 
diversion was accomplished and the deep canyon of the Sha-ho sawed out 
are discussed on a subsequent page. 
Above Li-yiian-p’u the valley of the southwest fork is aggraded with 
heavy mountain wash and is wider than one would anticipate in compari- 
son with the canyons below. This peculiarity is no doubt related to the 
conditions of diversion. It is not attributable to the occurrence of softer 
rocks in this section as compared with those in the canyon section, since 
the mountain masses consist throughout of Féu-p’ing gneisses. The plan 
of the valley above Li-yiian-p’u is that of a straight, growing branch, 
dividing into many smaller ones at the outer end. For 6 miles, 9.5 kilo- 
meters, it is direct in its course and confined between two bold mountain 
spurs which narrowly limit the tributary brooks. Beyond the 6 miles, 
