Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 85.djvu/217

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as has been shown by Andrews, Griffith-Taylor and Hedley, was once above the sea but is now submerged to a depth of from 90 to 180 feet. Shattered fragments of the old limestone are found imbedded in the ash crater of the volcano.

On the western side of the island, the crater rim rises to a height of about 750 feet, the seaward slope being steep and evidently determined by the angle of repose of the ejected ash.

In later times, however, the volcano appears to have exploded and destroyed the northern part of the crater rim, out of the break in which there flowed a tongue-shaped mass of lava which now constitutes the northern half of the island. The last volcanic activity issued from a small ash-cone in the cup of the old crater, and then the island lapsed into its unbroken quietude.

A luxuriant growth of cocoanut palms, and forest trees now covers the old lava, while coarse grass grows rankly over the ash slopes of the crater. The torrential rains of the wet season from November to March