320 RESEARCH IN CHINA. 
are described as raised fault-blocks, and their northern slopes as fault- 
scarps. The Ta-hua-shan was not seen by us on its southern and south- 
eastern flank, which is part of the watershed of the lower Han river. The 
Ts’in-ling-shan forms the east-west divide between the Yellow river and 
the Yang-tzi watershed, and we use the name as far south as the latitude 
of Shi-ts’iian-hién, where there is an east-west depression which for a 
short distance is the valley of the Han; but it is probable that there are 
local Chinese names for different parts of the range, and that this applica- 
tion might not correspond with native usage. Among important physio- 
graphic features, the basin of Han-chung-fu, to the west of our route, is 
one of the most interesting, but we were unable to visit it. The part of 
the Han river which we followed runs through high mountains, for which 
we learned no general native name. We shall speak of them as the Moun- 
tains of the Han, including under that term the heights on both sides of 
the river, from the basin of Han-chung-fu eastward. In traversing them 
the Han cuts a deep canyon, which widens at Hing-an-fu to a valley 8 
or 10 miles, 13 or 16 kilometers, across on the course of the river from 
east to west, and probably 30 or 40 miles, 50 or 60 kilometers, long from 
north to south. This basin is floored with recent gravels, and appears to 
have other features than those which would follow from a simple widen- 
ing of the river valley. Between the Han-kiang and the Yang-tzi-kiang 
is a very extensive mountain mass with many ramifying valleys and ridges, 
most of them of notable altitude and as yet very little known. ‘The dis- 
trict is one in which the Jesuit fathers, 200 years ago, located but few 
points astronomically, and which most travelers have passed by, taking 
one of the great highways, either up the Yang-tzi or the Han, or from Han- 
chung-fu southward into the Red Basin of Ssi-ch’uan. In 1903-’04, how- 
ever, a British party under Col. C. E. Manifold made extensive surveys 
in this district. The main divide became known to us as the Kiu-lung-shan 
or Nine-dragon range, and we used that name to designate the mountains 
south of those of the Han valley; but we are unable to draw any line 
between the mountainous regions thus distinguished, and indeed there is 
no line to be drawn, as the northern ridges of the Kiu-lung-shan extend 
to the Han. The northern and southern watersheds of the Kiu-lung-shan 
are both traversed by canyons, of which those that are cut by tributaries of 
the Yang-tzi are remarkably profound and narrow. The celebrated gorges 
of that river transect ranges of great height and end at I-chang, where, 
960 miles from its mouth, the mighty stream enters its flood-plain. 
The physiography of the region thus sketched differs from that of 
North China in being comparatively simple in development. We were 
unable to recognize any very aged upland surface, which might corre- 
