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hundred and thirty miles from the coast. They are here 
known as the Cascade Mountains, which name they retain as 
they continue their Southerly course, still parallel with the 
coast line, through Oregon until they cross the Northern 
border of, and enter California, where they appear to termi- 
nate in the towering peak of Mount Shasta, which at this 
point lifts its voleanic cone to a height of over 14,000 feet. 
Throughout this Cascade Range we find several other volcanic 
cones, as Mount Hood, Mount Rainier, Mount Baker and 
others; in fact it is essentially a mountain chain lifted to its 
present attitude by volcanic agency, which has made itself 
‘more plainly evident through the openings in the cones 
mentioned. If we pass Southward from Mount Shasta we 
find again another chain of mountains, similar to those we 
have just been considering. These bend at first inwards and 
away from the coast, and then taking much the direction. of 
the Cascades extend Southward until they would seem to 
lose themselves in the Southernmost part of the state of 
California. This range, pierced also by volcanic cones, con- 
stitutes the Sierra Nevada Mountains of that state. As they 
bend forwards towards the coast at both ends of the chain, 
they present a somewhat bowed shape, and thus form half of 
the brim of the enormous oval basin of which we are to speak 
anon. Nearer to, and in fact immediately upon the coast 
itself, we find another chain of mountains of a much less 
altitude than the Sierra Nevada, and also of very different 
characters both physically and geologically. These, receiving 
various names in different parts of the state, are all to be 
included very properly under one head, and thus they 
constitute the Coast Range of Mountains of California, Al- 
though this range keeps very much to the coast, yet at both 
the Northern and Southern parts of the state it bends 
inwards, as it were to meet the Sierra Nevada, and thus 
forms the outermost border of the great basin within which 
lie the beds of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers. 
The Coast Range Mountains, are made up almost entirely of 
sedimentary rocks, but the Sierra Nevadas consist of igneous 
materials; granites and the like. Although for the most 
