K 0. Rovey — New Cone of Mont Pete. 2T& 



the Riviere Blanche. The surface presented by the northeast 

 side is probably solid and glassy through different conditions 

 of cooling. The bombs, which lie in profusion over the basin 

 of the Lac des Pahnistes and other parts of the crater rim, are 

 of all kinds from wholly pumiceons with a thin, densely vitreous 

 crust to those which are mostly lithoidal in texture. The 

 author found one true bomb on the edge of this basin which 

 was fresh pumice in the interior with the usual fresh, densely 

 vitreous crust about an inch in thickness, but a part of the 

 exterior portion of the mass was formed by a lump of oxidized 

 agglomerate. Evidently this mass had been in contact with the 

 walls of the conduit through the old tuff beds of the volcano. 

 Usually one can readily distinguish between bombs which are 

 true bread-crust bombs in the sense that they are portions of 

 the fresh magma which have been blown into the air, where 

 they consolidated, and those which consist of fragments of 

 ancient lava beds which have been broken off and recently 

 reheated to a molten or plastic condition and then ejected. 

 The latter often show characteristic surfaces of conchoidal 

 fracture which are not observed on the former, and they are 

 more lithoidal in texture than the former. Angular fragments 

 of lithoidal lava, one-fourth to one-half inch (1 cm.) across, coat 

 parts of the crater rim near the Lac des Palmistes basin, 

 apparently blown there from the new cone. 



There is now no central opening or pit-like depression in the 

 top of the new cone corresponding to the general idea of a crater. 

 The incomplete glimpses of the active cone obtained in June, 

 1902, seemed to the author^ to indicate the existence at that 

 time of a true crater in its top, as has been mentioned on page 

 271. The growth of the spine has destroyed this crater, if it 

 ever had any long-continued existence. Steam issues with 

 vigor from all parts of the cone, but especially from the top 

 and from the southeastern portion, but not from the spine. 

 Minor explosions occur from the southwestern side at an eleva- 

 tion of apparently about four thousand feet (1,220 meters) above 

 the sea, and from the northwestern side at a somewhat greater 

 elevation. Heavy outbursts have taken j^lace on December 

 16, 1902, January 25, 1903, and March 26, 1903, with less 

 important ones on other dates, from the southwest side of the 

 cone near the base of the sj)ine or from 4,400 to 4,500 feet 

 (about 1,375 meters) above the sea. There is no one definite 

 conduit through the cone or spine itself, to the exclusion of 

 others. 



N^ext to the new cone and spine, the most striking change in 

 Pele, to one who was familiar with the appearance of the 



*Bull. A. M. N. H., xvi, p. 355, and pi. 44, fig. 2. This Journal, IV, xiv, 

 p. 340 and fig. 14. 



