st dramatic incidents in the history of the
earth.

In the evolution of the Cascades, many have been the misadventures of
volcanoes. Some have been buried alive in ash and lava, and merged into
conquering rivals. Some have been buried in ice which now, organized as
glaciers, is wearing down their sides. Some have died of starvation and
passed into the hills. Some have been blown to atoms. Only one in
America, so far as known, has returned into the seething gulf which gave
it birth. That was Mount Mazama.

The processes of creation are too deliberate for human comprehension.
The Mississippi takes five thousand years to lower one inch its valley's
surface. The making of Glacier National Park required many--perhaps
hundreds--of millions of years. It seems probable that the cataclysm in
which Mount Mazama disappeared was exceptional; death may have come
suddenly, even as expressed in human terms.

What happened seems to have been this. Some foundation underpinning gave
way in the molten gulf below, and the vast mountain sank and disappeared
within itself. Imagine the spectacle who can! Mount Mazama left a
clean-cut rim surrounding the hole through which it slipped and
vanished. But there was a surging back. The eruptive forces, rebounding,
pushed the shapeless mass again up the vast chimney. They found it too
heavy a load. Deep within the ash-choked vent burst three small craters,
and that was all. Two of these probably were short-lived, the third
lasted a little longer. And, centuries later, spring water seeped
through, creating Crater Lake.

Crater Lake is set in the summit of the Cascade Range, about sixty-five
miles north of the California boundary. The road from the
railway-station at Medford leads eighty miles eastward up the
picturesque volcanic valley of the Rogue River. The country is
magnificently forested. The mountains at this point are broad, gently
rolling plateaus from which suddenly rise many volcanic cones, which,
seen from elevated opens, are picturesque in the extreme. Each of these
cones is the top of a volcano from whose summit has streamed the
prehistoric floods of lava which have filled the intervening valleys,
raising and levelling the country.

[Illustration: CROSS-SECTION OF CRATER LAKE SHOWING PROBABLE OUTLINE OF
MOUNT MAZAMA]

Entering the park, a high, broad, forested elevation is quickly
encountered which looks at a glance exactly what it is, the base which
once supported a towering con