St. Vincent, and 2It. Pelee, Martinique. 341 



(p. 340) indicates the probable relationships between the inner 

 cone and the old crater. 



The illustration, tig. 14, gives the sight I obtained of the 

 inner cone from the eastern side of the crater. At that time 

 its top must have been just about on a level with or, perhaps, 

 somewhat higher than the camera, which was 3950 feet above 

 tide, bj aneroid reading. The photograph shows that there 

 was a depressed crater in the top of the inner cone. My 

 measurements of the angle of slope of the southern side of 

 this cone determined it to be 38° to 40°, but there were pre- 

 cipitous portions. The material which rolls and slides down the 

 southwest side of this cone continues directly into the gorge 

 of the Riviere Blanche. The steep-sided valley formed by the 

 inner cone and the inner slopes of the crater-rim forms a 

 continuation of the gorge of the Blanche and rises at a con- 

 siderable angle from the southwestern gash to the base of the 

 rocky precipice on the eastern side of the crater, where it may 

 be 800 feet in depth. The valley probably continues around 

 the northern side of the inner cone rising in a spiral, for it 

 appears at an elevation of at least 3600 feet on the western 

 side, between the rim of the crater and the cone on the north- 

 west side of the great gash. The new fragmental cone rises, 

 apparently, on the site of the new crater mentioned by 

 Romain, a conclusion which seems to be in agreement with 

 the account of the eruption of May 8 by M. Fernand Clerc as 

 given by Kennan,^ which is as follows : " About eight o'clock, 

 with a rending, roaring sound, a great cloud of black smoke 

 appeared suddenly on the southwestern face of the volcano 

 near its summit, and rushed swiftly down in the direction of 

 St. Pierre, . . ." Before this outburst, M. Clerc had been 

 observing the great column of vapor rising from the other 

 principal center of eruption, which is located in the valley 

 within the great crater at the base of the high point of rock 

 on the eastern edge (the remains of Morne -Lacroix). At 

 intervals columns of steam rise energetically from other parts 

 of the crater valley.f 



*The Outlook, vol. Ixxi, p. 683, July l->, 1902. 



f Mome Lacroix is reported to have disappeared altogether and the crater 

 to have extended greatly toward the east during the great outbursts which 

 occurred from August 25 to September o. This may indicate that the vent 

 under the new inner cone above described has become partly clogged, and 

 that the main activity has shifted to the vent mentioned (see p. 340) as being 

 east of the Etang Sec at the base of the western face of Morne Lacroix. If 

 this has taken place, as seems highly probable from the reported destruction 

 of Morne Lacroix, the new inner cone acted as a dam in the great south- 

 western gash which played such an important part in the destruction of St, 

 PieiTe, so that the last eruptions came from a centrally located vent (like 

 that of La Soufriere. St. Vincent) and the debris from the crater was dis- 

 tributed more symmetrically about the cone. The position of the great gash 



