Editorial Comment. 319 
EDITORIAL COMMENT. 
I'ELKLITIIS. 
I'LATES XX-XXII. 
The very remarkable ascent of the rock cone in the crater 
of \lout Pele has attracted world-wide attention. Several sim- 
ilar peaks have been described, and several others might be. 
In view of the frequency of tliis form of volcanic plug it is 
proposed to apply the term pclclith to such peaks, the type 
illustration being the peak of Mont Pele on the island of Mar- 
tinique. 
Following the admirable description of the Pele cone by 
Dr. E. O. Hovey* from whose account the figures of plate xx 
are extracted by permission of (he editor of the American 
Journal of Science, Dr. J. C. Branner called attention to the 
similarity of the peak of Fernando de Noronha, illustrating 
it by figures which are reproduced below, t According to Dr. 
Branner Sir Richard Strachey, in Xafiirc, Oct. 15. 1903. calls 
attention to a peak in India of wImcIi the Mont Pele peak 
reminds him. 
The writer in 1874 examined Bear butte in South Dakota, 
which stands on the plains about six miles east of the northern 
part of the Black hills. It consists of phonolyte, the same rock 
which forms the peak of Noronha. It is isolated from the hills, 
rising in the midst of the Fort Benton shales, of the Cretaceous, 
to a bight above the level plains of 1200 feet. It is a si!igular 
conical mass, steep on all sides and difficult to climb. It is 
surrounded, not much above the level of the plains, by a ring or 
horseshoe ridge of rook which consists apparently of some sedi- 
mentary strata more or less tilted away from the butte. The 
rock of the central mass has not a distinct columnar structure, 
but splits on weathering into slalis from half an inch to two 
inches in thickness and not usually exceeding ten inches in 
extreme dimension, constituting a shingle that forms a copious 
talus on all sides. The summit is in tlie form of a ridge elong- 
ated northwest and southeast. 
• American Journal of Science, October, 1903. 
t Am. Jour. Sci., December, 1903. 
