Arizona republican., 1905-06-29
The PeIee Obelisk.

The hints which Mont PeIee gave 9 few days ago that its activity was about to be renewed lend interest to an article contributed to the last number of Science" by Professor Israel C. Russell. IL relates to a strange phe- nomenon which followed the eruption of 1902. A few months after that outbreak q huge column Of solid ma teriaI was seen to rise slowly from the crater At one time it had Q height of fully one thousand feet. During the summer of 1903 it gradually disinte- grated and disappeared. When the crater was visited by two residents Of Martinique last October there was visible a dome shaped mass in the cen ter of the incIOsure, having q diame- ter of 250O feet at its base and an elevation of between HOO and 1,200 feet. but nothing was left of the sO- called obelisk.
 Geologists agree in regarding the obelisk as a plug of lava which had once closed the conduit of the volcano, but they differ about it's age. Profes- sor Heilprin of Philadelphia imagines that it was formed at the close of the eruption of half 9 century ago. 9th CTS. among whom is Professor Russell. incline to the belief that the column was a product of the last one. They think that the eruption of 1902 shat tered the solid portion of the plug previously formed. and that the debris was discharged in the form of dust and pieces of rock.
 One of Professor RusselIs reasons for adopting the latter view Of the case is that a long time-say scvera! thousand years-wouId probably be re quired for the complete qualification of the column of lava reaching down ward in the interior of the volcano 3 mile or more. The cooling of sucn mass, he thinks, would begin at the periphery, and a tubular shell of solid 1 material might be formed. which wOGlG | inclose a hotter and more plastic cen~ | ter. The uppermost portion of this | core would harden, of course, and il ! would be detached and ejecUAd when a | fresh eruption occurred. but it might | take more than half Q century for | the whole mass to solidify.
 When a fresh upward movement be- | gan in 1902. Professor Russell thinks, | the soft central portion of the ezud- !! ing mass went to pieces rapidly, in ! consequence of the explosions of steam inside of it. The tubular shell suffered | from contact with the walls Of the | passage out of which it was forced . from below, and such contact destroy cd nearly all of it. The obeIisk was at one side of the center of tho era ter and seems to have been a part of the tube. That suDDosition IS strengthened by the vertical scratches OF str-ations on one of it's faces, a..si by the slight concavity noticed on the other. Professor Russell considers the dome the conicaI top of the whole plug, covering both tube and core.
 Although it seems probable that other obelisks have been formed above volcanoes, some of them pos sibly exceeding Pelee's in size. no in stance is on record. In the nature Of things. close observation Of the deveI- opment is impossible Hence theories regarding the method of creation must be held tentatively for a while. New ertheIess, Professor Russell presents a strong argument for believing that the column seen in 1902 and 1903 was of recent formation and not a relic Of the eruption of 1851.