216 RESEARCH IN CHINA. 
I quote from my notes as follows: 
The face of the range southeast of the Hin-chéu basin (the Ki-chéu-shan) was veiled 
in dust until to-day. We approached it from Fang-lan-chén, at a point about S. 75° 
KE. from Ting-hiang-hién, where a well-established trail leads over the divide. Here the 
range is high, with summits of 6,000 feet or more. Its face is cut by many ravines 1.5 
miles long, more or less, from the head of each alluvial cone to the crest. The intervening 
spurs just here have an average slope of 20°. They are gentler and longer toward the gap 
of the Hu-t’o-ho, 3 miles east, and steeper and shorter further west. The detailed profile 
varies in each ridge according to the texture of the rocks, gneiss, granite, shale, and lime- 
stone, but the line along the tops of the lower cliffs is remarkably even. Each ravine 
debouches upon an alluvial cone, and the successive cones are confluent. They rise 1,000 
feet above the plain and have a radius of about 2 miles. Their material consists in part 
of coarse shingle, which is mostly limestone with some granite and gneiss, and in part 
of residual soil, that is caught in terraces and cultivated. Westward the alluvial cones 
grow shorter and in 3 miles nearly fail. The face of the range is notably steeper. The 
long spurs are wanting. The shorter spurs are very steep, of uniform front to a line, 
and end in a triangular facet which is but slightly gashed. These are features of a fault- 
scarp upon which there has recently been movement. 
The facts just noted form the culmination of various evidences of a decided upwarp 
in the range south of the several loess basins, together with relative or absolute down- 
warp along their common axial line. The evidence was lacking east of Wu-t’ai-hién, 
was first observed in the district of deep loess canyons west of the Sing-ho in the Wu- 
t’ai-hién basin, appeared more emphatically evident as a tilted topographic surface west 
of the Tung-yti basin, and is most obvious south of the Hin-chéu basin. The upwarp 
and the downwarp are recognized in the relative positions of surfaces of a mature 
phase of topography, which has developed wide valleys in the weak rocks, and to a less 
degree in the limestones. This topographic phase is seen in the basins at altitudes of 
2,500 to 3,000 feet, in the Yau-t’6u and the Ki-chéu-shan at altitudes of 4,500 to 6,000 
feet, and may be traced on continuous spurs descending from the higher to the lower 
occurrences. The evidences of tilt are seen also in accelerated drainage effects in all 
streams flowing northwest; whereas the southeasterly courses of the greater rivers appear 
to be antecedent valleys, which have deepened to canyons in the development of the 
upwarp. 
The view of the upper surface of the Ki-chéu-shan at an altitude of 
about 6,000 feet is shown in Plate XXXV, which was sketched on the 
triangulation point south of Chung-hua looking northeast. 
Our course lay through the depression of the loess basins and we saw 
the mountain ranges southeast of them only from high summits, which 
we occasionally ascended in the progress of the work. So far as we could 
thus observe, it was a broad belt of mountains, which showed little differ- 
ence in altitude for 20 miles, 30 kilometers, or more, and beyond which 
our view did not extend. The forms of the mountains were those char- 
acteristic of the Sinian limestones in the nearer view, with equally elevated 
peaks which suggested the Pre-Cambrian Wu-t’ai schists or T’ai-shan 
gneiss in the further distance. It is probable that the broad section of 
T’ai-shan gneiss which we passed on the Sha-ho, and possibly some of the 
