336 RESEARCH IN CHINA. 
of the Kiu-lung-shan. That such a warp should locally give way to a 
fault-scarp would be consistent with the relations of warped surfaces and 
faults, as we observed them through northern China; but at I-chang the 
slope is not broken. 
PHYSIOGRAPHIC STAGES. 
In the course of our journey of 350 miles, 560 kilometers, from the Wei 
valley across the Ts’in-ling-shan, down the canyon of the Han, and across 
the Kiu-lung-shan to the Yang-tzi, we observed evidences of but two 
physiographic stages: the one, which is characterized by a mature topog- 
raphy of notable relief, we have called the Ts’in-ling stage; the other, 
whose characteristic form is the canyon, we might designate the Fén-ho 
stage, applying the name used in North China; but in view of the differ- 
ences of conditions in the north and south, it will be well to distinguish 
the southern type from the northern by giving it another name, and none 
could be more appropriate than that of the Yang-tzi stage. 
TS’IN-LING STAGE. 
The Ts’in-ling stage takes its name from the highest portion of the 
Ts’in-ling-shan. It is characteristically developed among the summits of 
that range, where it is represented by valleys that widen above the present 
canyons of the streams and wind among hills which rise 1,000 to 2,000 feet, 
300 to 600 meters, higher. It was traced from these high altitudes down 
the southern slope of the Ts’in-ling-shan to the valley of the Han, where 
the elevation of its ancient valleys is probably not far from 1,500 feet, 450 
meters, above sea, and the hills that diversified it rise less than a thousand 
feet higher. It was seen again from the spur above Siau-tau-ho on the 
Han river, and above Lau-hién. South of the basin of Hing-an-fu its 
valley surfaces range from about 1,900 feet, 580 meters, near the southern 
margin of the basin to 2,200 feet, 670 meters, south of Lau-hién, and the 
hills rise to 3,500 feet, 1,050 meters. Southward from P’ing-li views of 
distant ranges clearly express the elements of the Ts’ing-ling surface, 
namely, the long, nearly level profile of its valleys and the pyramidal 
sharp-pointed forms of its hills, and by these features it was followed to 
the Ki-sin-ling, where the valley altitude is something over 5,200 feet, 
1,580 meters, and the neighboring mountains rise 3,000 feet, 900 meters, 
higher. 
Throughout the area from the northern Ts’in-ling-shan to the pass of 
the Ki-sin-ling, the rocks upon which the surface is carved are essentially 
similar in that they are prevailingly schistose. Southward from the Ki-sin- 
ling, however, the folded limestones and shales of the Paleozoic present 
a different mosaic and the topographic type differs accordingly. The 
