N THE LAVA, SHADOW MOUNTAIN

The groovings in the lava show that it was squeezed out in a half-solid
condition]

It is in the country west of the Rockies, the region last to be
explored and settled, that the objects of our search come to light.
Here are volcanoes and lava fields so extensive as almost to bury
from sight the older surface of the earth. Some of them appear
as if but yesterday they had been glowing with heat.

In the Cordilleran region Nature has carried on her work with a
master hand. She has lifted the earth's crust to form a great plateau.
Portions of the plateau she has broken, projecting the fragments
upward to form lofty mountains, while along the fissures thus created
she has squeezed out fiery molten matter from the interior of the
earth. This molten material has spread out in fields of lava or
has piled itself about small openings, forming volcanic cones,
which in some cases have overtopped the loftiest mountain ranges
of the continent. It is believed that a number of these volcanic
eruptions have occurred in the Cordilleran region of the United
States since the discovery of America, and that one took place
within the lifetime of many persons now living.

San Francisco Mountain, in northern Arizona, is the loftiest volcanic
peak of a region dotted with volcanoes and lava flows. This great
volcano, like most of its neighbors, has long been extinct, although
a few miles to the eastward there appears a group of small but
very new cones.

A ride of fifteen miles from the town of Flagstaff, across the
forest-covered plateau, brings us to Shadow Mountain and the fields
of lava and volcanic sand lying at its base. The mountain, throughout
its height of over one thousand feet, is a conical aggregate of
loose lapilli which give way under the feet and make climbing the
peak very tiresome.

The lapilli and scoriae are slag-like fragments of lava which have
been blown out of the throat of the volcano while in a hot or
semi-molten condition. These fragments, as they fall back to the
earth, collect about the opening and in time build up the volcano,
or cinder cone, as such a mountain is frequently called. The finer
particles, which have the appearance of dark sand, fall farther
away and form a layer over the surface for some miles upon every
side. These products of an explosive volcano are sometimes called
cinders and ashes, because of their resemblance to the slag and
refuse of furnaces.

In the cas