260 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 



lingers on the highest peaks that surround the 

 lava-beds. 



Then the winters grew shorter and the summers 

 longer. The south winds blew, and the ice melted 

 away, first from the plain and then from the moun- 

 tains. The water ran down the sides of the lava-bed, 

 cutting deep gorges or canons, so deep that the sun 

 can hardly see the bottom. And into the joints 

 and clefts of the rocks more and more water went, 

 to be hurled back with greater and greater violence, 

 for all the waters of all the snow cannot put out 

 a mile deep of fire. 



In the old depressions where the ice had chiselled 

 away the softer rocks, there were formed lakes of 

 the standing water, and one of these was more 

 than thirty miles long, winding in and out among 

 the mountain-ridges. In the lake bottom the water 

 soaked through down to the hot lava below, from 

 which it was thrown boiling back to the surface 

 again, fountains of scalding water in the icy lake. 



The cold Ice age had killed all the plants in the 

 region ; it had driven off the animals that could 

 be driven, and had then buried the rest. But 

 when the snow was gone the creatures all came 

 back again. Grass and meadow-flowers of a 

 hundred kinds came up from the valleys below. 

 The willow and the aspen took their place again 

 by the brookside, and the red fir and the mountain 

 pine covered the hills with their sombre green. 

 The birds came back. The wild goose swam and 

 screamed, and the winter wren carolled his bright 

 song, loudest when there seemed least cause for 

 rejoicing. The beaver cut his timber and patiently 



