Topographic youth, topographic maturity, and topographic old age are also indicated in other ways, and especially by the presence of features which rivers tend to destroy. If, for example, the surface of the land, well above the valley bottoms, is marked by numerous ponds and marshes, it is clear that drainage has not yet progressed beyond its early stages, for, unless the lakes be very deep, valleys working back into the land will find and drain them before topographic maturity has been reached. Their presence is evidence that the region where they occur has not yet been thoroughly dissected by erosion lines, and therefore has not reached maturity. Still other marks of topographic youth, such as rapids, falls, etc., as well as marks of topographic maturity and old age, will be mentioned in the following pages. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF TOPOGRAPHIES DEVELOPED BY RIVER EROSION. With the characteristics of river valleys and the methods by which they grow clearly in mind it is easy to say whether rivers have been the chief agents in the development of a given topography. River valleys are distinguished from other depressions on land surfaces by their linear form and, leaving out of consideration the relatively insignificant inequalities in a stream’s channel, by the fact that any point in the bottom of a river valley is lower than any other point farther up the stream in the same valley, and higher than any point farther down the stream. The second point might be otherwise stated by saying that every valley excavated by erosion leads to a lower valley, or to the sea, or an inland basin. Streams which dry up, or otherwise disappear as they flow, constitute partial exceptions. If, therefore, the depressions on a land surface are linear, lead to other and deeper valleys, and finally to an inland basin, or the sea, and if the elevations between these valleys are such as might have been left by the excavation of the valleys, it is generally clear that rain and rivers have been the chief factors in the development of the topography. If, on the other hand, a surface is characterized by topographic features which streams cannot develop, such as enclosed depressions, or hills and ridges whose arrangement is independent of drainage lines, other agents besides rain and surface streams have been concerned in its development. SPECIAL FEATURES RESULTING FROM SPECIAL CONDITIONS OF EROSION. Many striking topographic and scenic features result from rain and river erosion. Some of them depend primarily on the conditions of erosion, such as climate, altitude, etc., while others depend largely on the structure and resistance of the rock. Between these two classes there is no sharp line of demarkation. Illustrations of two types, dependent largely but by no means wholly on conditions independent of the rock, are cited at this point. Others will be mentioned in other connections.