Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/116

112 new and hitherto lower part of its surroundings. By the long continuance of this process of repeated shiftings and fillings, the great eastern plain of China and many smaller plains have been produced. It is here, where the population is densest and the rivers least confined, that the devastation by floods and their attendant famines is greatest.

By this succession of events the surface of China is believed to have reached its modern condition. We may now consider it piecemeal and see how the existing geologic conditions, which are the result of this long series of past changes, influence the habits, occupations and even mental traits of the people. Because space is limited and also because I have not seen all the physiographic divisions of China, it will not be possible for me, even briefly, to describe each of them. A few are therefore selected to show the range of variety of the whole.

The mountains of northeastern China, typified by the province of Shantung, are unlike those of the rest of the country in several respects. Although the individual peaks are often sharp and rocky, they are generally separated by wide, flat-bottomed valleys. The process of erosion has here gone so far that the rivers have already carried away most of the land, leaving only isolated groups of low mountains. The broad valleys accommodate a relatively large number of people, who congregate in the villages dotting the intermontane plains. In contrast with most mountainous regions, travel between the different valleys is comparatively easy here, because many of the passes are but little higher than the plains themselves and constitute scarcely any obstacle to