e. At its summit, this swelling base is
found to be the outside supporting wall of a roughly circular lake,
about five miles in diameter, the inside wall of which is steeply
inclined to the water's surface a thousand feet below. The strong
contrast between the outer and inner walls tells a plainly read story.
The outer walls, all around, slope gently upward at an angle of about
fifteen degrees; naturally, if carried on, they would converge in a
peaked summit higher than that of Shasta. The inner walls converge
downward at a steep angle, suggesting a funnel of enormous depth. It was
through this funnel that Mount Mazama, as men call the volcano that man
never saw, once collapsed into the gulf from which it had emerged.

Studying the scene from the Lodge on the rim where the automobile-stage
has left you, the most vivid impressions of detail are those of the
conformation of the inner rim, the cliffs which rise above it, and the
small volcano which emerges from the blue waters of the lake.

The marvellous inner slope of the rim is not a continuous cliff, but a
highly diversified succession of strata. Examination shows the layers of
volcanic conglomerate and lava of which, like layers of brick and stone,
the great structure was built. The downward dip of these strata away
from the lake is everywhere discernible. The volcano's early story thus
lies plain to eyes trained to read it. The most interesting of these
strata is the lava flow which forms twelve thousand feet of the total
precipice of Llao Rock, a prominence of conspicuous beauty.

Many of these cliffs are magnificently bold. The loftiest is Glacier
Peak, which rises almost two thousand feet above the water's surface.
But Dutton Cliff is a close rival, and Vidae Cliff, Garfield Peak, Llao
Rock, and the Watchman fall close behind. Offsetting these are breaks
where the rim drops within six hundred feet of the water. The statement
of a wall height of a thousand feet expresses the general impression,
though as an average it is probably well short of the fact.

[Illustration: _From a photograph copyright by Scenic America Company_

DUTTON CLIFF AND THE PHANTOM SHIP, CRATER LAKE]

[Illustration: _From a photograph copyright by Scenic America Company_

SUNSET FROM GARFIELD PEAK, CRATER LAKE NATIONAL PARK]

[Illustration: CROSS-SECTION OF CRATER LAKE]

At the foot of all the walls, at water's edge, lie slopes of talus, the
rocky fragments which erosion has broken loo