Next in order above the basal conglomerate, will follow the coarser and then the finer sands, upon which in turn will be laid down the offshore sediments—the muds and the lime deposits. Later, when cemented together, these become in order, coarser and finer sandstones, shales, and limestones. The order of superposition, reading from the bottom to the top, thus gives the order of decreasing age of the formations. A subsequent uplift of the coast will be accompanied by a recession of the sea, and when later dissected by nature for our inspection, the order of superposition and the individual character of each of the deposits may be studied at leisure. From such studies it has been found that along with the inorganic deposits there are often found the remains of life in the hard parts of such invertebrate animals as the mollusks and the crustacea. These so-called _fossils_ represent animals which were gradually developed from simpler to more and more complex forms; and they thus serve the purpose of successive page numbers in arranging the order of disturbed strata, at the same time that they supply the most secure foundation upon which rests the great doctrine of evolution. =The basins of earlier ages.=—It was the great Viennese geologist, Professor Suess, who first pointed out that in mountain regions there are found the thickest and the most complete series of the marine deposits; whereas outside these provinces the formations are separated by wide gaps representing periods when no deposits were laid down because the sea had retired from the region. The completeness of the series of deposits in the mountain districts can only be interpreted to mean that where these but lately formed mountains rise to-day, were for long preceding ages the basins for deposition of terrigenous sediments. It would seem that the lithosphere in its adjustment had selected these earlier sea basins with their heavy layers of sediment for zones of special uplift.