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The National Geographic Magazine 



when the tree-toads were still croaking 

 and when Nature shrouded the land- 

 scape in a veil of darkness, M. des 

 Grottes and myself, with two assisting 

 carriers, bore off to the easy arete 

 which steadily moves up to the sum- 

 mit of the volcano. A nasty rain, which 

 came and went with intervals, dogged 

 our trail for the better part of an hour 

 and added little comfort to the little 

 that goes with these trips. Once on 

 the open slope of the volcano, however, 

 everything went well, and my mount, 

 the Arabian "Mocha," did its share of 

 the journey in an unusually pleasant 

 way, showing only scant signs of fa- 

 tigue up to the point where conditions 

 made it desirable to leave the animals. 

 This is now considerably more than 

 half way up the mountain. 



We gained the summit, in a not par- 

 ticularly satisfying drizzle, shortly be- 

 fore eight o'clock, only to find that lit- 

 tle was to be seen beyond. The crater 

 basin was full of shifting clouds and 

 vapors, and only in rarest snatches 

 could we pick up through thinning 

 areas the form of the massive dome and 

 of its covering debris. At the spot 

 where we reached the crater- wall, by 

 some of the good people of the region 

 facetiously called the salon, there were 

 marked evidences of recent slipping 

 and subsidence, and for some distance 

 back of the border new separating lines 

 told plainly of the reaches that before 

 very long were to be added to the cra- 

 teral hollow. A shift in the wind 

 brought the greater part of the dome 

 momentarily into view, and also cleared 

 up what remains of the old Morne de la 

 Croix. Its flank, a short distance from 

 the brink, carries the new cross which 

 in great state was planted on the 14th 

 of September last. On this day Pelee 

 was in gala form, for not less than six 

 hundred inhabitants of the island 

 formed part of the procession that fol- 

 lowed the cross to the summit, moving 

 up in a long continuous line that to 

 some may have been reminiscent of 

 the Chilkoot trail. A minor wooden 



cross has also been erected near the 

 eastern border of what was formerly 

 the basin of the Lac des Palmistes. 



Following the rim of the crater along 

 its northern face, or in the direction of 

 the Petit Bonhomme, we found a spot 

 where it seemed that a descent might 

 be made over the very sharp knife- 

 edge, and where, indeed, an earlier de- 

 scent had already been made by my 

 associate, together with two compan- 

 ions, MM. Salet and Beaufranc. A very 

 stiff wind was unfortunately blowing 

 over this crest, and for a time it seemed 

 that its persistence would thwart our 

 effort to gain the rim. My own affairs 

 were not particularly encouraging 

 either, for I had but one good foot, and 

 dragged another as a reminiscence of a 

 mishap on board the steamer of our 

 voyage. Once over the rim, however, 

 we were on fairly easy ground, and the 

 scramble to the bottom was quickly 

 made. Here we were immediately 

 brought into contact with the parts of 

 the obelisk, which were lying about 

 everywhere, almost completely cloak- 

 ing the body of the dome itself and 

 measurably filling in the horseshoe- 

 shaped area of the old crater basin. 

 Close to the point of our descent the 

 depth of the crateral cavity could 

 hardly have reached a hundred feet. 

 Westward of our position it was still 

 less, while directly under the old Morne 

 de la Croix it may have more nearly 

 measured 150 to 200 feet. The dense 

 vapors (in the absence of an aneroid) 

 did not permit of any accurate determi- 

 nations of depth at this time. The 

 width of the hollow at its base had 

 been reduced to hardly more than a 

 rock-space in some places ; elsewhere 

 it widened out to a number of yards, 

 and from its boulder-strewn surface 

 steam was issuing in scattered jets. 



Having secured the necessary foot- 

 ing, we almost immediately began the 

 attack upon the dome itself, a suffi- 

 ciently easy undertaking in the present 

 condition of the volcano and requiring 

 no care beyond that which attaches to 



