142 N. S. SHALER — EVIDENCES AS TO CHANGE OE SEALEVEL. 



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Delaware river 155 



Delaware river to cape Cod 156 



Cape Cod peninsula 156 



Cape Cod to bay of Fundy 156 



Bay of Fundy 157 



Gulf of Saint Lawrence ' 157 



Labrador 158 



Arctic shores 158 



Pacific coast 159 



Result of the oscillations ■ . . . 160 



Coasts of other lands 161 



General statement concerning them 161 



Caribbean district , 161 



South ximerica 161 



Africa • 162 



Australia 163 



Asia 163 



Europe 163 



Northern Mediterranean shore 164 



Islands of the Pacific ocean 164 



Conclusions 164 



Introduction. 



The great importance of changes in the distribution of land and sea 

 has in a general way long been recognized. Of late years interest in the 

 question has been increased by the studies of geologic climate which 

 have been undertaken, as well as by the extension of our knowledge con- 

 cerning the movements of faunas and floras over the submerged and 

 emerged portions of the earth's crust. From the time of Strabo down to 

 the present day all those who have looked intelligently on shoreline 

 phenomena have recognized the inconstancy in the relations of sea and 

 land. Almost all the students of such phenomena have, in their thinking, 

 made the assumption that the changes in the positions of the shoreline 

 were due to the simple process of up or down movement of the crust 

 where the changes in elevation have occurred. Strabo saw, and briefly 

 indicated in his writings, that we must take into account not only the 

 swayings of the land itself, but those movements of the deep-sea bottoms 

 which, by displacing the ocean waters, might cause them to flow over or 

 recede from the land masses. From the time of this illustrious geogra- 

 pher to near the present day his adaiirable suggestions as to the move- 

 ments of the ocean floor were neglected. Here and there an author has 



