Along the Baltic coast of Sweden, bench marks show that the sea is withdrawing from the land at a rate which at the north amounts to between three and four feet per century; Towards the south the rate decreases. South of Stockholm, until recent years, the sea has gained upon the land, and here in several seaboard towns streets by the shore are still submerged. The rate of oscillation increases also from the coast inland. On the other hand, along the German coast of the Baltic the only historic fluctuations of sea level are those which may be accounted for by variations due to changes in rainfall. In 1730 Celsius explained the changes of level of the Swedish coast as due to a lowering of the Baltic instead of to an elevation of the land. Are the facts just stated consistent with his theory? [Illustration: Fig. 165. Old Strand Lines, Tadousac, Quebec] 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? [Illustration: 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. [Illustration: Fig. 167. Section in a Region of Folded Rocks] Foldings of the Crust The oscillations which we have just described leave the strata not far from their original horizontal attitude. Figure 167 represents a region in which movements of a very different nature have taken place. Here, on either side of the valley _v_, we find outcrops of layers tilted at high angles. Sections along the ridge _r_ show that it is composed of layers which slant inward from either side. In places the outcropping strata stand nearly on edge, and on the right of the valley they are quite overturned; a shale _sh_ has come to overlie a limestone _lm_ although the shale is the older rock, whose original position was beneath the limestone. [Illustration: Fig. 168. Dip and Strike]