CHAPTER XLI 



MOUNTAINS, EARTHQUAKES, VOLCANOES, GEYSERS 



Mountains. Since water tends to level down the high places 

 of the earth and to build up the low places, it would seem 

 that the earth ought to be fairly level. But it is not level. 



FIG. 271. Fujiyama, Japan, with an elevation of 12,440 feet above 

 sea level. 



Here and there over the world high mountains rear them- 

 selves above their surroundings and tower thousands of feet into 

 the sky. Pikes Peak, Colorado, for example, rises 10,000 feet 

 above the surrounding country and nearly three miles above 

 sea level. Throughout Montana, Wyoming, and other west- 

 ern states the giant peaks of the Rockies lift their heads and 

 dominate the landscape ; in California the snow-capped Sierra 

 Nevada lift their towering peaks above the sunny plains; 



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