96 



Sierra Club Bulletin 



balloon over the mountain for fifteen minutes and then disappeared. It 

 was an ideal night, dark, but clear so that all the stars were out." 



Subsequently Professor Diller found rocks in that vicinity which 

 seemed to have been recently fused on their surface. It would seem to 

 be a reasonable conclusion, then, that molten lava, whether actually 

 ejected or not, has been nearer the surface than usual during the recent 

 renewal of volcanic activity. 



During the present winter it is not probable that many reliable ob- 

 servations of the crater can be made, but the general public as well as 

 the physiographer will await with interest the coming of another sum- 

 mer, which will give the opportunity to learn whether the volcano is 

 really declining in activity or whether the slowly accumulating stress of 

 the internal forces of the earth is to be relieved by an eruption greater 

 than any of the past two years. It may be said, however, that downward 

 blasts from volcanoes are relatively scarce and that the probabilities are 

 against the repetition of the particular combination of circumstances 

 which produced the Hat Creek flood. 



