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The National Geographic Magazine 



similar conditions, of two structures 

 which were so largely dissimilar in 

 habit as the fluidal dome and the rigid 

 spine. If the substance of the dome 

 was able to maintain its fluidity, it 

 might reasonably be argued that the 

 mass of the obelisk would have been 

 able to do the same. On the other hand 

 the divergent condition is entirely con- 

 sonant with any theory that holds that 

 the extruded rock was an ancient rock 

 core that had been bodily lifted from 

 its moorings, and that it bore no re- 

 lation in its making to the newer ac- 

 tivities of Pelee. This is the view that 

 I myself hold and is that which I have 

 enunciated elsewhere. M. Lacroix has in 

 many places pointed out that the mechan- 

 ics of the two structures were inde- 

 pendent of one another. 



4. On the theory of a rapidly solidi- 

 fying lava, one would naturally expect 

 to find the surface of the cooling body 

 giving out vapors from its inner parts, 

 but the Pelee obelisk, except, perhaps, 



along lines of rifting or near its base, 

 never, so far as I am aware, exhibited 

 this peculiarity, the tower of rock looming 

 up at all times grimly cold and dry, and 

 with much the appearance of steam hav- 

 ing acted upon its surface. 



To the objections that have here 

 been stated others less direct might 

 also be urged. My recent journey 

 has, perhaps, not contributed much to 

 the elucidation of the subject, except 

 in so far as negatively it has failed to 

 determine, in an examination of much 

 rock material, any evidences of recent 

 solidification of the same. To this ex- 

 tent, therefore, it tends to support my 

 contention, that the obelisk of Pelee 

 was an ancient volcanic plug which 

 bore no relation in its formation to the 

 newer phase of eruption of the volcano, 

 and was lifted bodily, as the result of 

 extreme volcanic stress, in the manner 

 of the great block of granite (and 

 domite?) of the Puy Chopine, in the 

 Auvergne. 



WHAT THE LATIN AMERICAN REPUBLICS 



THINK OF THE PAN-AMERICAN 



CONFERENCES 



THERE was recently held in 

 Philadelphia, under the au- 

 spices of the American Acad- 

 emy of Social and Political Science, a 

 special meeting devoted to the Pan- 

 American Conferences, at which a num- 

 ber of notable addresses were given. 

 The various speakers defined very 

 clearly the significance of the confer- 

 ences and the achievements of the two 

 conferences that have already been 

 held. Summaries of the speeches by 

 the Mexican Ambassador, the Brazilian 

 Ambassador, the Costa Rican Minister, 

 and the Bolivian Minister, printed below, 

 are interesting in that they give the Latin- 

 American point of view. 



BY THE; MEXICAN AMBASSADOR, SENOR 



UCENCIADO DON JOAQUIN D. 



CASASUS 



The Congress of the United States, 

 by the act of May 24, 1888, authorized 

 the President to invite the governments 

 of Mexico, Central and South America, 

 Haiti, and Santo Domingo to hold a con- 

 ference in conjunction with the United 

 States, with the object of discussing 

 and recommending to the respective 

 governments a plan of arbitration for 

 the solution of conflicts that might 

 arise between them ; to treat besides on 

 matters pertaining to the development 

 of commercial traffic and of the means 

 of direct trade between those countries, 



