At the little town of Tadousac—where the Saguenay River empties into the St. Lawrence—there are terraces of old sea beaches, some almost as fresh as recent railway fills, the highest standing two hundred and thirty feet above the river ([Fig. 165]). Here the Saguenay is eight hundred and forty feet in depth, and the tide ebbs and flows far up its stream. Was its channel cut to this depth by the river when the land was at its present height? What oscillations are here recorded, and to what amount?
Fig. 166. Diagram showing Ruins of Temple, North of Naples
C, ancient sea cliff; m, marble pillars, dotted where bored by mollusks; sl, sea level
A few miles north of Naples, Italy, the ruins of an ancient Roman temple lie by the edge of the sea, on a narrow plain which is overlooked in the rear by an old sea cliff ([Fig. 166]). Three marble pillars are still standing. For eleven feet above their bases these columns are uninjured, for to this height they were protected by an accumulation of volcanic ashes; but from eleven to nineteen feet they are closely pitted with the holes of boring marine mollusks. From these facts trace the history of the oscillations of the region.
Fig. 167. Section in a Region of Folded Rocks
Foldings of the Crust