The New Cone of Mont Pelee 



423 



lava beneath. At night the lower 

 portions of it glow with light. Dr 

 Hove)' says that in the light of the 

 rising sun the spine looks like an 

 enormous white monument rising 

 above the mountain. Its true color 

 is more a reddish brown with a 

 whitish incrustation over it. No 

 one can say exactly what the na- 

 ture of the spine is, but the proba- 

 bilities are that it is largely pumi- 

 ceous in texture. The masses con- 

 stantly falling from the sides of the 

 spine, which grows as rapidly as it 

 wears away, will probably in time 

 completely bury the old crater. 



The new cone of Mont Pelee, 

 with its great protruding tooth, is 

 not central within the old crater. 

 It has been built up northwest of 

 the center of the old crater. There 

 is no central opening or pit-like 

 depression in the top of the new 

 cone corresponding to the general 

 idea of a crater. Steam issues from 

 all parts of the cone, especially 

 from the top, but none from the 

 tooth. 



Dr Hovey's subsequent studies 

 of the Grande Soufriere of Guade- 

 loupe and the peak of Saba on the same 

 expedition lead him to the conclusion 

 that they have passed through the 

 phases through which Mont Pelee is 

 now passing, and that they all substanti- 

 ate the cumulo- volcano theory. " This is 

 especial!}- clear in the case of the Grande 



The Top of the New Spine of Mont Pelee 

 from the Crater Rim 



Looking about N. 30° W. Photograph taken 

 March 26, 1903, for the American Museum of Na- 

 tural History by Dr E. O. Hovey. 



Soufriere, the cone of which rises above 

 an old crater rim which it has buried in 

 the same way that Mont Pelee is now 

 striving to bury its surrounding crater- 

 walls." * 



* American Journal of Science, vol. xvi, 

 October, 1903. 



Alaskan Boundary Decision. — The 



award of the Boundary Commission has 

 denned the boundary according to the 

 American claim in practically every re- 

 spect. This line is shown in a map 

 published in the National Geo- 

 graphic Magazine on page 90, March, 

 1903. The award makes one change 

 in this map, in Portland Canal. Port- 

 land Canal has two parallel channels, 

 with four islands between them. Canada 

 claimed that the northern channel and 



the United States that the southern 

 channel was Portland Canal and the 

 boundary. By the decision Portland 

 Canal — i. e. , the boundary — passes north 

 of Pearse and Wales Islands (which are 

 the innermost islands of the four) and 

 enters the ocean through Tongass Pas- 

 sage, between Wales and Sitklan Islands. 

 Canada thus acquires Pearse and Wales 

 Islands, and the United States Sitklan 

 and Kantgunut Islands, the two outer- 

 most of the four islands. 



