=Stratification.= For the most part the sheet of sea-laid waste is hidden from our sight. Where its edge is exposed along the shore we may see the surface markings which have just been noticed. Soundings also, and the observations made in shallow waters by divers, tell something of its surface; but to learn more of its structures we must study those ancient sediments which have been lifted from the sea and dissected by subaërial agencies. From them we ascertain that sea deposits are stratified. They lie in distinct layers which often differ from one another in thickness, in size of particles, and perhaps in color. They are parted by bedding planes, each of which represents either a change in material or a pause during which deposition ceased and the material of one layer had time to settle and become somewhat consolidated before the material of the next was laid upon it. Stratification is thus due to intermittently acting forces, such as the agitation of the water during storms, the flow and ebb of the tide, and the shifting channels of tidal currents. Off the mouths of rivers, stratification is also caused by the coarser and more abundant material brought down at time of floods being laid on the finer silt which is discharged during ordinary stages. [Illustration: Fig. 152. The Under Side of a Layer deposited upon a Sun-Cracked Surface, showing Casts of the Cracks] [Illustration: Fig. 153. Rain Prints] How stratified deposits are built up is well illustrated in the flats which border estuaries, such as the Bay of Fundy. Each advance of the tide spreads a film of mud, which dries and hardens in the air during low water before another film is laid upon it by the next incoming tidal flood. In this way the flats have been covered by a clay which splits into leaves as thin as sheets of paper. It is in fine material, such as clays and shales and limestones, that the thinnest and most uniform layers, as well as those of widest extent, occur. On the other hand, coarse materials are commonly laid in thick beds, which soon thin out seaward and give place to deposits of finer stuff. In a general way strata are laid in well-nigh horizontal sheets, for the surface on which they are laid is generally of very gentle inclination. Each stratum, however, is lenticular, or lenslike, in form, having an area where it is thickest, and thinning out thence to its edges, where it is overlapped by strata similar in shape. [Illustration: Fig. 154. Cross Bedding in Sandstone, England]