Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 63.djvu/471

Rh

extraordinary shaft, of rock (lava) shown in the illustration now transfixes the newly-constructed cone of Pelée, and towers above it upward of 800 feet, giving to the volcano a height of 5,020 feet, instead of 4,250 (or 4,400) feet, which it had prior to the eruption of May 8, 1902.



This unique structure which, on May 31 of this year, rose still 180 feet higher, is being and has been pushed up bodily, the lava solidifying before leaving the interior of the volcano. During the four days immediately preceding June 17, as determined by M. Guinoiseau, a member of the French Scientific Commission in Martinique, the lift or ascent was nearly 21 feet, but at an earlier day the movement was much more rapid. The obelisk, which