Similar cliffs appear at the bases of other ranges of mountains in the Great Basin. Springs abound along these fractures in the earth, for the surface waters have an opportunity to collect wherever the rocks are broken. Numerous fertile valleys mark the line of earthquake movements, for the broken rocks and abundant springs favor rapid erosion. Among the Coast Ranges of California there appears a series of fractures in the earth which form a line nearly four hundred miles long. They extend from a point near San Bernardino in a northwesterly direction to the neighborhood of San Francisco. Severe earthquakes have taken place along this line since the country was settled. The pressure and grinding of the earth upon opposite sides of the fissures has formed long low ridges of earth. Small valleys have been blocked, and the old stage road from Los Angeles to Bakersfield, which followed the course of the fissures for a number of miles, has been almost obliterated. [Illustration: FIG. 24.--ELIZABETH LAKE, CALIFORNIA Occupying a valley primarily due to earthquake movements] Hundreds of cliffs and mountain scarps throughout the West have come into existence as the results of movements such as we have been describing. Where the disturbances have been recent the mountains are bold and picturesque. Those produced in earlier times are in many instances so worn away that it is difficult to tell with certainty how they were made. THE LAST VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES There are more volcanoes in our country than is generally supposed. Some are very small and some rank among the greatest of mountain peaks, but all together there are many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of them. At present they are all silent and apparently dead. We are accustomed to speak of them as extinct volcanoes, but of this we must not be too sure. They stand dark and cold, giving no clue to the nature of the forces which made them, except perhaps by the presence of an occasional hot spring and the appearance of the rocks of which they are composed. The slag-like character of these rocks we have learned to associate with intense heat. Some of these volcanoes are very old and have been nearly worn away; others are new and almost as perfect as when they were first made. Where shall we go to find these volcanoes? Are there any upon the Atlantic coast or neighboring highlands? Though you may travel over all that portion of our country, you will find none, although you will discover in places, as for instance in the palisades of the Hudson, lavas which came from very ancient volcanoes, worn down so long ago that their very sites are lost to view.