Notes and Correspondence 



95 



most level plateau of ugly bare rocks, with hissing steam escaping from 

 the many cracks and crevices, and over all the shimmering air indi- 

 cating the heat below. Strange as it may seem, those of the party who 

 had visited the crater before found this uplifted mass of old lava more 

 awe-inspiring than the former depths of the crater, leading downward 

 to the internal forces which had produced the great explosions. 



Closer inspection revealed the fact that the crater had not been filled 

 by ejected material, but that the entire mass had been shoved bodily up- 

 ward (Plate CLI). The old crater rim sloped downward some twenty 

 feet and there met the almost vertical wall of the uplifted center with a 

 strip of talus at its foot. Photographs taken later of the southwest and 

 northwest slopes show the dark rocks of the uplift filling the well- 

 known notches in the old crater rim, notches which prior to May, 1915, 

 gave, from some points of view, the impression of two separate peaks. 



Interest in the eruptions occurring during the remainder of 1915 rests 

 largely in the question whether they indicate that the volcano is be- 

 coming quiescent once more. Professor Diller of the United States Geo- 

 logical Survey has expressed the opinion that the great outbursts in 

 May spent the present energy of the volcano and that it w'ill again be- 

 come dormant. The writer was at first apprehensive that Professor Dil- 

 ler's opinion was correct, but hope for continued activity is not yet lost. 

 Eruptions have occurred at rather frequent intervals throughout the 

 summer and fall. Many of them have thrown columns of steam and ash 

 to a height of several thousand feet. The eruption during the night of 

 October 30, 1915, was sufficient to cause a fall of ashes at Susanville, 

 forty miles away, as attested by Mr. David Durst, principal of the High 

 School at that place. The Shasta Courier of November 2 reports an 

 eruption seen from Redding on November i, "the most spectacular since 

 May 22," and estimates the ash column as 10,000 to 12,000 feet in height. 



One further question should be discussed, and that is the one so often 

 asked: "Has any real lava been thrown out? Large quantities of real 

 lava which in a former period cooled and became solid down in the 

 throat of the volcano have been ejected, but there is no evidence that 

 molten lava has flowed from the crater during the present period of ac- 

 tivity. It is of course self evident that some source of great heat has 

 existed within the volcano for the past two years. Several of the reports 

 that hot rocks or luminous rocks have been seen during eruptions oc- 

 curring at night are too reliable to be discarded. The following extract 

 from a letter from Miss Inez Hyatt of Sacramento, whose party was 

 camped at Manzanita Lake, scarcely five miles from the top of Lassen 

 Peak, is clear and definite in its testimony. 



"We really did see a wonderful eruption at ten o'clock at night, June 

 first (1915), when red-hot material shot up, looking very much like 

 flames, and we clearly saw one huge red-hot rock roll down the slope 

 toward Manzanita Creek. There were other rocks, too, which lodged, I 

 suppose, near the top, but this one big rock shot far down beyond the 

 rest. Then a big cloud of black smoke came out and hung like a big 



