File:The continent we live on (1961) (20658427916).jpg

Title: The continent we live on
Identifier: continentweliveo00sandrich (find matches)
Year: 1961 (1960s)
Authors: Sanderson, Ivan Terence, 1911-1973
Subjects: Physical geography; Natural history
Publisher: New York : Random House
Contributing Library: New College of California
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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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"

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