=The sedimentary record and the denudation cycle.= We have seen that the successive stages in a cycle of denudation, such as that by which a land mass of lofty mountains is worn to low plains, are marked each by its own peculiar land forms, and that the forms of the earlier stages are more or less completely effaced as the cycle draws toward an end. Far more lasting records of each stage are left in the sedimentary deposits of the continental delta. Thus, in the youth of such a land mass as we have mentioned, torrential streams flowing down the steep mountain sides deliver to the adjacent sea their heavy loads of coarse waste, and thick offshore deposits of sand and gravel (Fig. 156) record the high elevation of the bordering land. As the land is worn to lower levels, the amount and coarseness of the waste brought to the sea diminishes, until the sluggish streams carry only a fine silt which settles on the ocean floor near to land in wide sheets of mud which harden into shale. At last, in the old age of the region (Fig. 157), its low plains contribute little to the sea except the soluble elements of the rocks, and in the clear waters near the land lime-secreting organisms flourish and their remains accumulate in beds of limestone. When long-weathered lands mantled with deep, well-oxidized waste are uplifted by a gradual movement of the earth's crust, and the mantle is rapidly stripped off by the revived streams, the uprise is recorded in wide deposits of red and yellow clays and sands upon the adjacent ocean floor. Where the waste brought in is more than the waves can easily distribute, as off the mouths of turbid rivers which drain highlands near the sea, deposits are little winnowed, and are laid in rapidly alternating, shaly sandstones and sandy shales. [Illustration: Fig. 157. Offshore Deposits recording Old Age of the Adjacent Land _ss_, sandstone; _sh_, shale; _lm_, limestone] Where the highlands are of igneous rock, such as granite, and mechanical disintegration is going on more rapidly than chemical decay, these conditions are recorded in the nature of the deposits laid offshore. The waste swept in by streams contains much feldspar and other minerals softer and more soluble than quartz, and where the waves have little opportunity to wear and winnow it, it comes to rest in beds of sandstone in which grains of feldspar and other soft minerals are abundant. Such feldspathic sandstones are known as _arkose_.