low stone wall immediately overlooking a steep scree dotted with 

 small bushes and leading abruptly down to a pine forest. The 

 view can hardly be surpassed, but one's interest is inexorably 

 distracted from it and directed downward below the wall, where 

 a sort of zoological pantomime is in continuous progress. 



On this slope there dwell several dozen active little ground 

 squirrels, gray in color with a white collar; these are typical of 

 higher elevations throughout these ranges. They have gathered 

 here because tourists tend to drop goodies of various kinds over 

 the edge. However, there are also present a number of well- 

 organized gangs of the colorful Steller's Jay. Between the two 

 populations there is a kind of continuous cold war. The parties 

 intermingle guardedly, while rugged individualists from each 

 may make a limited tour through the territory of the other, but 

 mass travel through "enemy" territory is apparently verhoten. 

 Both rodents and birds sit nonchalantly about on the boulders or 

 pretend to be at work in the bushes, but if any edible morsel rolls 

 down the steep incline, all sorts of actions, maneuvers, and 

 counteractions are set in motion. Representatives of both parties 

 make determined dashes, each using its particular tactics and 

 physical abilities to the best advantage. If the tidbit comes to 

 rest on open ground, the birds usually win; if it rolls into a hole, 

 the rodents have the advantage; but I have seen a jay go into 

 the ground and a squirrel leap into the air. The whole perform- 

 ance is picayune against the towering backdrop of the ageless 

 mountains but has all the charm of a Disney cartoon. 



THE SLEEPING GIANTS 



From the geologist's point of view the Sierra Nevadas end to the 

 north about Lake Almanor, which is the headwater of the North 

 Fork River; but from our standpoint they continue to the Pit 

 River valley, which cuts through the mountains from the Great 

 Basin to the top of the Sacramento valley, and so they contain 

 Mount Lassen. This is a volcanic peak, 10,437 feet above sea 

 level, and it was active in 1914 and 1915. It marks the beginning 

 of a long string of volcanic peaks that extend throughout the 

 length of the Cascades. There are no less than 120 of them south 

 of the Columbia River gorge; Mount Shasta and its twin Mount 

 Shastina in the south, Mount Hood in the north, and Crater Lake, 

 Mount Jefferson, and others in between. North of the Columbia 

 River the most outstanding are Mounts Adams. St. Helen's, Rai- 

 nier, and Baker (which last erupted in 1870). Mount Rainier is 

 now perpetually snow-covered down to 6000 feet, and there are 

 numerous glaciers on all of them, even a small one about two 

 miles long on Mount Shasta. 



One of the most colorful places on earth is the famous Crater 

 Lake, which is in the middle of Mount Mazama, another huge, 

 defunct volcano. This is a particularly strange volcano because 

 it must once have been a mountain at least 15,000 feet high in 

 order to have laid down the deposits of which its base is formed 

 Today the rim of its enormous crater stands at only 8000 feet. 

 Thus a pile of material six miles in diameter at the base and 

 rising 7000 feet has disappeared. Where did it go? If the moun- 

 tain blew its stack, there should be immense fields of its material 

 thrown all around for miles; but there is none. Geologists have 

 therefore inferred that it sank or fell back into itself. Crater Lake 

 is over 2000 feet deep today, and from one side of its floor there 



A great tree (Sequoia washingtoniana) in the General 

 Grant Grove in the Sierra Nevada. Like all Giant Sequoias, 

 it is topped and has an "onion base" 



