If they are, as is claimed by some, for vents to the interior molten condition, why do they become extinct, so many of them, and almost invariably become lakes inside their craters? With the whole center of the Earth a molten mass, there ought to be fire enough to keep them going incessantly. Where does the water come from to keep up a constant outpour of steam and vapor in locations where it seldom rains? It would seem as if the small amount of rain or snow that fell would get pretty well dried out before it arrived at a point to create an eruption by contact with melted rock, or that such a quantity could keep up steam in such an immense cauldron. There is no reason to presume that a drop of rain water ever enters a volcanic crater, except what may fall into its open mouth, which will be impossible. Have Volcanoes any specific use in Earth economics? Do they tend to open up water courses from the interior and by their upheavals on the continents and islands of the Earth create natural elevated reservoirs from which the lower regions of Earth can be irrigated? Do they not send out certain gases to mingle in the atmosphere, producing favorable results in vegetation and animal life? Are not the vicinities of volcanoes noted for the fine fruits and wines in latitudes in which they grow? VIII. RAINFALLS. This chapter being devoted to rainfalls, a few introductory observations may be in order. The essential need on Earth’s surface for growth of vegetation, and the sustenance of life, depending thereon in some form, is in universal irrigation, which Nature failed to furnish by its internal provision of water with its outflow of springs and lakes, except by artificial use. The rainfall on the Earth is no more intended for filling of springs, lakes and seas than it is for supplying us with fuel. It is simply a provision for surface watering of vegetation, and has no more effect on the existence of living springs and subterranean outflow of water than the eclipse of the moon. There never was a rainfall, except, perhaps, in Noah’s time, that wet the general surface of the country to the depth of three feet, and rarely one-half of that. It is generally called a good, soaking rain that moistens the bottom of the potato hills, and to wet what the soil will hold one to two feet requires a prodigious amount of water. It is claimed by proprietors of orange groves that a volume of water of six inches in depth is requisite to thoroughly irrigate the grove. If the claim that rain has no effect on the supplies of springs and lakes be true, you will ask why it is that after a long drouth and a heavy rainfall, the springs resume running, and water returns into wells that have for a time been dry? The effect on those sources of supply is simply the same as results from wetting a sponge to take up water which will not absorb and be taken up in a dry one. You can easily be convinced of this effect. To show that water will run uphill or away