famous _Strokkur_, which had been born during the earthquake of 1789, suddenly ceased its eruption and came to an end. [Illustration: _Stereo Copyright, Underwood & U._ _London and New York_ A Geyser in Action In geysers the suggestion that the fountains of steam and hot water originate by the contact of water with hot rock is irresistible.] In steep-walled mountain valleys earthquakes nearly always cause landslips, and these may completely block the course of a river. The lake formed in this manner during the great earthquake of January 25th, 1348, in Carinthia destroyed no fewer than seventeen villages, and to-day, nearly six centuries afterwards, the area is a great marsh. After the earthquake near Lake Baikal in Siberia, of which we have spoken and in which the ground sank, the sunken area was soon after invaded by the waters of the lake. Sometimes when the earthquake takes place near the mouth of a great river, the channels of the streams are changed. After the Californian earthquake of 1857 the current of the River Kern was turned upstream; and the San Gabriel River left its bed to follow a new course offered to it by an earthquake fissure. After the Japanese earthquake of 1891 a former lake was cut in half by one of the earthquake displacements, and one half of the lake was left high and dry. Near Flagstaff, Arizona, there is an old earthquake crack along which the waters of several rivers which intersect it all disappear down the crevice. The most remarkable revelation of the process of lake draining during earthquake shocks was furnished, however, according to Professor Hobbs, by the former Lake Eulalie near New Madrid. After the shocks of 1812 the lake completely disappeared. On the lake bottom thus exposed there was revealed a series of fissures down the funnel-shaped openings which the waters had disappeared.