Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-09-21
THE NEW MOUNT PELEE.
Great Gone Which Has Been ThrOws Up N Net Central Within
 the old Crater.

The new cone With Lns great sp1bs A not central within the old crater. Ths most important of the openings con cerned in the present series of aruptloni were on the west side of the old crater. lake. LEtang Sec, and the axis or the new cone is northwest of the center or m old crater, writes Edmund Otis HovAN in "A Wonderful Change in Pelee.' Thn has resulted in the complete filling of ths northwest part of the crater. making the slope of the new cone confinuons with the exterior of the old crater ram on that side. On the northern. eastern and southern sides. between the ne" cone and the cratsr rim, there is snal- low spiral valley which dabauchss inlo the gorge of the Riviere Blanche on Che southwest. The deepest part of this val ley is beneath the ruins of Morne La- croix, and is estimated to be about 1oa feet desp. On the southwest the new cone slopes continuously into the debris filling the gorge of the Blanche. Great ribs of solid rock project from several parts of the new inner cone, which IS a composite affair made up of fragmentaa ejecta from the vents, lava which has welled up or been pushed up from below, and masses which have fallen or been blown off from the latter. These ribs radiate more or less roughly from the center of the cone. and above them towers the spine or tooth which IS so remarkable. The spine. like the ribs, evidently is composed of solid rocks that is, 1t is not made up of fragments which have heen thrown up into the air by the volcano and have fallen back into pile.
 Although rifted and profoundly fis- sured the spine is. not a chimney. there being no conduit through it. The place from which have come the heaviest out bursts since August 30 is on the south west side of the new cone, but another very attractive spot is on the northwest side; both are near the base of the spine. The spine itself is Toore than 1000 feet high, Separate fragments could not be piled up to such height and rest at the angles shown by the sides of the spine. The side toward the east is smooth and vertically fiuted, as if 1t ad been rubbed against something hard, and this sug- gests the explanation of the pbenome- non. The rock mass of the cone, and par ticularly that of the spine. has been pushed up bodily from below in solid or nearly solid condition by the enor- nous expansive forces working under meath, and is maintained there. some what like a stopper in bottle. partly by friction against the sides of the neck and by the expansive forces underneath. an idea virtually new to the science of vulcanology. The French government commission. of which Prof A. Lacroix is the head. was the first to put forward this theory and to include Peiee among the "cumulo-volcanoes." The shape of the spine, with it's sides forming angles of 75, ST and even 90 degrees with the hori- zontal, is an argument against the theory that it has been formed by elected blocks or bombs which were sufficiently pasty to stick together on falling. and in favor of the stopper" theory. The great and sudden changes in altitude of the spine with reference to the rest of the cone. with great changes in its shape. point in the same direction. Frequently the cone and spine show red incandescant lines at night. together with a luminous spot near the top of the spine--an addi- t1onal proof of the solid. as distinguish ed from fragmental, character of the mass.