Mat 20, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



801 



tion, however, based upon considerations 

 drawn from the form of the tower, the dis- 

 tinctly varying conditions of two opposed 

 faces, the absence of fluidal overflow at any 

 point, and the sharp line of demarkation that 

 separated the base of the structure from the 

 enveloping cone or dome (in which a true 

 flow was plainly apparent, exemplifying the 

 Georgios-Santorin dome of 1866 and the 

 Vesiwian 'monticule' of 1895), and a review 

 of the difficulties that stand in the way of the 

 Lacroix explanation, forces upon me very 

 strongly the impression that the tower was 

 merely the ancient core of the volcano that 

 had been loosened from its moorings and lifted 

 bodily outward by the force of the volcano's 

 activity. The whole appearance of the tower 

 was much more suggestive of an ancient rock 

 metamorphosed by heat (or steam) action than 

 of a newly formed and rapidly solidified lava, 

 and as early as August, 1902 (McClure's Mag- 

 azine), when its extraordinary relations were 

 still unknown, I referred to it (and others, 

 lilvcwise) as giving the aspect of ' burned-out 

 cinder masses.' This view of the structure 

 of the Pelee tower has, indeed, suggested it- 

 self as a possibility to other geologists, and 

 I believe was held tentatively by some before I 

 had myself seriously considered it; but at this 

 time it does not seem to me that there can be 

 much doubt as to its broad accuracy. 



The lifting of giant rock-masses or moun- 

 tain-cores through the crateral axis of a 

 volcano is not entirely unknown, for it is now 

 many years since Abich described, in his 

 monumental work on Transcaucasia, the up- 

 heaved mass occupying a portion of the 

 crateral wall of the Palandokan volcano; and 

 a somewhat similar structure had been noted 

 still earlier by Scrope in the Puy Chopine of 

 the Auvergne. Neither of these structures 

 was in any way comparable in magnitude with 

 the Pelee tower, but their manner of uplift 

 was not unlikely largely identical. The fact 

 that most volcanoes ' plug ' themselves after 

 varying periods of activity, and that some of 

 these reopen directly in the line of earlier erup- 

 tions, would in itself seem to suggest that from 

 time to time extravasated plugs (neck-cores 

 or towers) should appear at the surface, and 



I take it for granted that some, at least, of 

 what have heretofore been considered as vol- 

 canic erosion-fragments are in reality merely 

 structures of this kind. It can hardly be 

 possible that upthnists of this nature should 

 not exist. Sir Richard Strachey has, indeed, 

 called attention (in Nature) to numerous 

 ' towers ' or fingers occurring over the trap- 

 flows of the Dekkan plateau, and he likens 

 these (observed and sketched by him the 

 better part of seventy years ago) to the Pelee 

 excrescence. In how far the structures may 

 or may not be identical only^a new study of 

 the Indian field can positively determine; but 

 I believe that the Indian figures will be found 

 to represent the extremely acute ' thumbs ' and 

 pinnacles which surmount the trap plateau of 

 different parts of Greenland (Omenak Prom- 

 ontory, Disko Island), whose origin through 

 erosion can not be questioned. Somewhat 

 more doubtful may be the character of the 

 (true) Devil's Thumb which marks the en- 

 trance to Melville Bay, and whose picture 

 looms up in my mind very similar to that of 

 Pelee's tower. 



In this brief note it is impossible to enter 

 into a discussion of the diffieiilties that oppose 

 themselves to the generally accepted view of 

 the structure of the Pelee tower; some of 

 these will be more particularly referred to in 

 a general paper which is about being sent to 

 press. The view here expressed may lead to 

 a better understanding of the relations of the 

 ejected fragmental rock, the greater part of 

 which, it seems to me, is from the old stock 

 of the volcano, with the chemical and physical 

 composition of which it so closely agrees. 



Angelo Heilprin. 



Philadelphia, 

 May 5, 1904. 



CVBBE'NT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 



A NEW SUNSHINE RECORDER. 



In Symons's Meteorological Magazine for 

 March, the new Dawson-Lander sunshine re- 

 corder is thus described. The instrument con- 

 sists of a fixed drum, on which some silver 

 chloride photographic printing paper is fast- 

 ened, under a film of transparent celluloid. 

 An outer cover is rotated by clock-work once 



