CHANGES IN LEVEL OF THE LAND 295 
domus, which bores in the stones on the shores of the 
Mediterranean. The bormgs on these columns con- 
tinue through a distance of nine feet. They could 
have been made only while the columns were standing 
in water, and the reason for their absence in the lower 
twelve feet, 1s that the lower part of the columns were 
cased in mud. So, built on dry land, these columns 
sank twenty-one feet or more, and then were raised 
again to nearly this height. The additional fact that 
there is a second pavement beneath the upper one, 
shows that even while the Romans used the temple, 
the land was sinking, and a new floor had to be laid 
above the water level. 
During the earthquake shock of 1891 in Japan, the 
ground rose perceptibly on one side of a fault plane, 
which was traceable at the surface over a distance of 
many miles (Fig. 219). During the earthquake shock 
of 1832, the land along the shore of Peru was raised to 
a height of three or four feet; and in 1836 a part of 
the coast of Chile was raised four or five feet. Along 
this western coast of South America, there is evidence 
of a much greater elevation in recent times. 
On the other hand, the coast of New Jersey is known 
to be sinkmg at an average rate of about two feet a 
century. There is historic evidence of elevation along 
the coast of Hudson’s Bay, an elevation which is pro- 
ceeding at a variable rate, amounting in some places to 
