E. O. Homy— New Gone of Mont PelL 277 



of Morne Lacroix the altitude of the rim decreases gradually 

 till the middle point of the northern rim is reached, where 

 the author got a reading of 1,130 meters (3,706 feet) beside a 

 precipice which prevented further progress westward. The 

 rim here dropped 10 meters, perhaps, but soon rose again, and 

 the western edge of the crater is essentially horizontal at an 

 elevation (judging from the heights abov^e Frecheur) of about 

 1,150 meters (3,772 feet) till the remains of Petit Bonhomme 

 are reached. This rock-mass, the only one besides Morne 

 Lacroix on the edge of the crater, overhangs the northern side 

 of the gorge of the Blanche (i. e., the great gash). It seems 

 to have lost some of its altitude and mass since June, 1902 ; 

 then its altitude was judged by Curtis and the author to be 

 about 4,000 feet (1,220* meters), while in March, 1903, it could 

 hardly have exceeded 1,180 meters (3,870 feet). 



The crater is wider than it was in June, 1902, the increase 

 being toward the east, south and southwest. On the east and 

 south the tuff w^alls are almost if not quite vertical. Numer- 

 ous landslides have occurred here, and in March, 1903, it was 

 necessary to exercise great caution in traversing the rim on 

 account of the cracked condition of the agglomerate.^ The 

 Y-shaped gash in the southwestern rim is wider, or rather the 

 southern side of it has been cut away, but the debris from the 

 new cone nearly fills it. 



The new cone with the great spine is not central within the 

 old crater. The most important of the openings concerned in 

 the present series of eruptions were on the west side of the 

 old crater-lake, L'Etang Sec, so that the new cone has been 

 built up northwest of the center of the old crater. The spine 

 rises from the northeastern quarter of the new cone. This has 

 resulted in the complete filling of the northwestern quarter of 

 the crater, making the slope of the new cone on the west and 

 north w^est sides continuous or nearly continuous with the ex- 

 terior of the old crater-rim. On the northern, eastern and 

 southern sides, between the new cone and the crater-rim, there 

 is a shallow spiral valley which debouches into the gorge of 

 the Riviere Blanche on the southwest. The deepest part of 

 this valley seems to be beneath the ruins of Morne Lacroix, 

 and is estimated to be about two hundred feet deep below the 

 old crater-rim. It seemed much deeper (500 to 800 feet) 

 during last June. On the southwest the new cone slopes 

 continuously into the debris filling the gorge of the Blanche. 



The new cone is a composite affair made up of fragmental 

 ejecta from the vents, lava which has welled up or been pushed 



*The edge shown in Bull. A. M. N. H., xvi, p. 44. fig. 1, and tills Jour- 

 nal, IV, xiv, p. 356, fig. 13, has been pushed back an indeterminable number 

 of feet and the inner slope is practically vertical instead of having an angle 

 of 65° from the horizontal. 



