296 ELEMENTARY GEOLOGY 
several feet a century. In Scandinavia it has long been 
known that parts of the coast were rising, and other 
portions smking. Shallow places became shallower, and 
on the same sections of the coast, rocks once submerged 
were found to come nearer the surface and finally rise 
above it. Along other parts of the coast, streets that 
had been built above sea-level were submerged. In 
order to test the amount of change, carefully located 
bench-marks were placed along the coast at the sea- 
level, and these are now found to be at different eleva- 
tions. Therefore man is actually witnessmg changes 
in land level in widely separated parts of the globe; 
but m most cases these are so slow that they are 
noticed only after long periods of time, and as the 
result of a carefully kept record. 
Geological Evidence. — Ocean Fossils on the Land. 
Of geological evidences that there is a change in the 
relative level of land and sea, one of the best is the 
presence of sea-made sedimentary rocks, which occur on 
all parts of the land, even among the highest mountains. 
Not only are these strata found, but i them are many 
fossils of animals that lived and died in the sea, and 
were entombed in the growing rocks. (See Part III.) 
In some places, as for instance along the coast of the 
Gulf of Mexico, there are strata now above sea-level, 
in which are found fossils of species still living in the 
neighboring ocean waters. This shows that in some 
