330 THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA 



Cloud River on the north to the Kaweah on the 

 south, a distance of over 400 miles, at an elevation 

 of from 2000 to 7000 feet above the sea. Besides 

 this regular belt of caves, the California landscapes 

 are diversified by long imposing ranks of sea-caves, 

 rugged and variable in architecture, carved in the 

 coast headlands and precipices by centuries of 

 wave-dashing; and innumerable lava-caves, great 

 and small, originating in the unequal flowing and 

 hardening of the lava sheets in which they occur, 

 fine illustrations of which are presented in the fa 

 mous Modoc Lava Beds, and around the base of 

 icy Shasta. In this comprehensive glance we may 

 also notice the shallow wind-worn caves in strati 

 fied sandstones along the margins of the plains; 

 and the cave-like recesses in the Sierra slates and 

 granites, where bears and other mountaineers find 

 shelter during the fall of sudden storms. In gen 

 eral, however, the grand massive uplift of the 

 Sierra, as far as it has been laid bare to observa 

 tion, is about as solid and caveless as a boulder. 



Fresh beauty opens one's eyes wherever it is 

 really seen, but the very abundance and complete 

 ness of the common beauty that besets our steps 

 prevents its being absorbed and appreciated. It is 

 a good thing, therefore, to make short excursions 

 now and then to the bottom of the sea among dulse 

 and coral, or up among the clouds on mountain- 

 tops, or in balloons, or even to creep like worms 

 into dark holes and caverns underground, not only 

 to learn something of what is going on in those 

 out-of-the-way places, but to see better what the 

 sun sees on our return to common every-day beauty. 



