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AS PHOTOGRAPHED, MARCH 25, 1903, BY THE WRITER, FROM THE BASIN OF THE LAC DES PALMISTES, ON THE OLD SUMMIT OF THE MOUNTAIN

The edge of the crater shows in the foreground, the new cone and spine being on the farther side of a valley about 200 feet deep. The spine itself rises about 1150 feet above the edge of the crater, which here is about 4000 feet above the sea. The vertical grooving which shows on the spine is one of the strong arguments for believing that the rock was pushed up in a solid or almost solid condition. The remains of Morne Lacroix, the former culminating point of Pelée, show on the edge of the crater at the right.

This has resulted in the complete filling of the northwestern quarter of the crater, making the slope of the new cone continuous or nearly continuous with the exterior of the old crater-rim on that side. On the northern, eastern, and southern sides, between the new cone and the crater-rim, there is a shallow spiral valley which debouches into the gorge of the Rivière Blanche on the southwest. The deepest part of this valley is beneath the ruins of Morne Lacroix, and is estimated to be about two hundred feet deep. On the southwest the new cone slopes continuously into the debris filling the gorge of the Blanche. Great ribs of solid rock project from several parts of the new inner cone, which is a composite affair made up of fragmental ejecta from the vents, lava which has welled up or been pushed up from below, and masses which have fallen or been blown off from the latter. These ribs radiate more or less roughly from the center of the cone, and above them towers the spine or tooth which is so remarkable. The spine, like the ribs, evidently is composed of "solid" rock, that is, it is not made of fragments which have been thrown up into the air by the volcano and have fallen back into a pile. The existence of these rock dikes in the early history of the present series of eruptions is indicated in a sketch by George Varian.1

Although rifted and profoundly fissured, the spine is not a chimney, there being no conduit through it. The place from which have come the heaviest outbursts since August 30 is on the southwest side of the new cone, but another very active spot is on the northwest side; both are near the base of the spine. The spine itself is more than one thousand feet high. Separate fragments could not be piled up to such a height and rest at the angles shown by the sides of the spine. The side toward the east is smooth and vertically fluted, as if it had been rubbed against something hard, and this suggests the explanation of the phenomenon. The rock mass of the cone, and particularly that of the spine, has been pushed up bodily from below in solid or nearly solid condition by the enormous expansive forces working underneath, and is maintained there, somewhat like a stopper in a bottle, partly by friction against the sides

of the neck and by the expansive forces. underneath, an idea virtually new to the science of vulcanology. The French Government Commission, of which Professor A. Lacroix is the head, was the first to put forward this theory and to include Pelée among the "cumulo-volcanoes." The shape of the spine, with its sides forming angles of 750, 870, and even 900 with the horizontal, is an argument against the theory that it has been formed by ejected blocks or bombs which were sufficiently pasty to stick together on falling, and in favor of the "stopper" theory. The great and sudden changes in altitude of the spine with reference to the rest of the cone, without great changes in its shape, point in the same direction. Frequently the cone and spine show red incandescent lines at night, together with a luminous spot near the top of the spine-an additional proof of the "solid," as distinguished from fragmental, character of the mass.

The tooth showing in a photograph taken July 6 seems to have been destroyed in the eruption of July 9, for it does not show in Professor Heilprin's photograph already referred to, which was taken from about the same spot August 24. During a large part of September and October, 1902, the summit of Pelée was covered with clouds. About the middle of October a view of the crater was obtained by Professor Lacroix, who then saw the present spine just rising above the general crest of the active cone. A fortnight later a momentary lifting of the clouds showed the pointed peak still higher, and it became visible from the French observatory at Assier.

After another week a clear hour revealed the spine rising a hundred meters above the cone. Then ensued a period of rapid growth in the clouds; for during the last week of November the mists lifted so that the strange new feature was seen in its entirety, and the top was at the altitude of 5032 feet (as determined by triangulation by Major W. M. Hodder of St. Lucia). Since that time it has varied in height some hundreds of feet, being reduced in January, by explosion or subsidence, to 4600 feet. After oscillations it again reached the previous maximum early in March, and during the latter part of that month was 1568 meters (5143 1 "McClure's Magazine," August, 1902.

LXVI-91

feet) above tide, according to the determinations of the French commission. The great spine seems to rise from a different part of the cone from that occupied by the "shark's fin" observed in July.

Every time that I was on the crater-rim small explosions were taking place in the cone, and masses were dropping from the spine; but the heaviest eruption during my visit took place at 6:12 P.M., March 26, two and a half hours after M. Louis des Grottes, of Habitation Leryts, on the lower slopes of the mountain, and I had left the summit. The cauliflower-like column of the eruption cloud rose to the altitude of 11,150 feet (3400 meters) above the sea; the dust-laden steam rolled with violence and great rapidity down the gorge of the

Blanche and reached the sea; the dust and steam even rushed across the Lac des Palmistes basin and a short distance down the eastern side of the outer cone. M. des Grottes and I were thankful that the outburst had not occurred until after we had reached a place of safety.

My recent studies of the Grande Soufrière of Guadeloupe and the Peak of Saba lead me to the conclusion that they have passed through the phases through which Pelée is now passing, and that they belong to the same class of volcanoes. This is especially clear in the case of the Guadeloupe Soufrière, the cone of which rises above an old crater-rim which it has buried in the same way that Pelée is now striving to bury its surrounding crater-walls.

THE FOREST GREETING

BY PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR

G

OOD hunting!-aye, good hunting,
Wherever the forests call;

But ever a heart beats hot with fear,
And what of the birds that fall?

Good hunting!-aye, good hunting,
Wherever the north winds blow;
But what of the stag that calls for his mate?
And what of the wounded doe?

Good hunting!-aye, good hunting,
And ah! we are bold and strong;
But our triumph call through the forest hall
Is a brother's funeral song.

For we are brothers ever,

Panther and bird and bear;

Man and the weakest that fear his face,
Born to the nest or lair.

Yes, brothers, and who shall judge us?
Hunters and game are we;

But who gave the right for me to smite?
Who boasts when he smiteth me?

Good hunting!-aye, good hunting,
And dim is the forest track;

But the sportsman Death comes striding on:
Brothers, the way is black.

"PETTY LARCENY"

BY RUTH MCENERY STUART

WITH PICTURES BY A. B. FROST

ERHAPS it is rather startling-Petty Larceny-as a name for a girl. And yet, taken as we usually take names, with no idea of any special meaning, it is not half bad. Indeed, it is even good, which is to say, primarily, that it has phonetic quality, is euphonious to a pleasant degree, and its first part, Petty, makes an attractive diminutive, rather suggestive of affection. On the plantation, where alone the name was known, Petty stood wholly as a term of endearment.

Petty was a fascinating maid of twenty or thereabouts,-"sort o' molasses-candy color an' sweeter yit," so one of her numerous admirers once described her, -and it would n't have mattered much if her name had been Dolores Vobiscum, like that of one of her friends who lost her mind: she would instantly have become Dolly the adorable, and been just as captivating as

now.

Her father, a stolid old negro known as King David, had served as janitor at the court-house in a remote county for several years in his early manhood; and during that time, as he went about his duties with no thought beyond the manual responsibilities of his office, certain bits of court vernacular fell from time to time unheeded into his ignoring mind, and simply lay there, like leaves in a dovecote, which either lie and rot or perchance sometime serve in the forming of a nest, for simple availability and fitness.

Old King David had always been a man of few words, and the unusualness of his slender vocabulary, enriched in so exceptional a way, gave him an enviable reputation for wisdom in a community the

highest tribute of which was paid to the inunderstandable.

For instance, when once in a quarrel with a neighbor whom he had accused of some offense, no matter what, he clenched his argument and won the lasting respect of a number of witnesses by exclaiming:

"What 's dat you say, nigger? Ef you talk like dat, I'll prove a' alibi on you in de face o' jestice."

No one knows certainly by what association the old man had connected the term "petit larceny" with his child, or that there was any special connection. It may have been only like the leaf blown into the dovecote, taken to serve. However, the writer is inclined to believe-from slight circumstantial evidence, which is often worse than no evidence at all-that in some mystical way he had associated the name with the woman whose statue, done in plaster, stood over the court-house door-her whom we all know, who stands ever blindfolded and bearing a pair of scales in her hand.

This may be an idle fancy, and yet, what else could he have meant when, one day, seeing Petty playing blind-man's-buff with the other children when she was about twelve, he exclaimed, laughing:

"Now, ef somebody 'd loaned Petty a pair o' weighin'-scales, she 'd look perzac'ly like her own statute."

Be this as it may, he was more than satisfied with the name, as was every one else on the place. The mother, born and reared in the shadows of even sub-suburban life, on a plantation remote from the world of thought or suggestion, took it with artless delight not unmixed with pride, recognizing it as one of a noble family, the acquaintance of which her lord had made in a broader life than hers.

Stealing was stealing on Sugar Bend plantation, and vigilance committees did n't trouble themselves much with terms. Of course, there had been occasional cases where culprits, taken in some offense, had been carried for trial to court, thirty miles away; but these were rare, and were generally for simple "American crimes," such as horse-stealing or fighting.

As she had merged into handsome womanhood, Petty's father made an effort to have her called Larceny, and for a time it seemed as if the more dignified name, shortened to Larcene, would carry the day; and so it would have done but for the girl's unfailing winsomeness, which made Petty peculiarly fitting.

Petty wore gowns of yellow and red and pink, and she sewed ruffles of one color upon another with long and careless stitches wherever about her flounce-loving person there seemed a place, and she was as pretty and straight as a yellow flag.

Going to the field, she always had a man with her, with gangs of malcontents within easy range, keeping her in sight; and until her twentieth year, when she finally made her choice, scarcely twice in succession was she seen with the same man.

She would have been surrounded, of course, but for plantation etiquette, which requires that one at a time shall have his chance with a maid, and while this opportunity lasts the rest must stand off.

Everybody knew that little yellow Phil, the fiddler, had loved her to despair all his life, and yet-perhaps because he had loved her humbly without hope for so long, and, too, partly because every able-bodied buck on the place was his confident rival -every one was surprised at her choice. Still, many were glad, just out of kindly sympathy with the lesser man. For love of Petty, Phil had worn black-and-blue eyes at frequent intervals for years; had even carried his arm in a sling for her sake, a serious matter for a fiddler.

Phil always got whipped in every encounter in love's cause, and yet he never seemed to have any sense of fear, at least where Petty was concerned. At the ghost of an insinuation reflecting upon her, he would light into a six-footer with the fire and recklessness of a bantam rooster challenged by a cock of the walk.

It is probable that the little man was as much surprised as any one else when Petty

accepted him. Certainly he acted quite as a man out of his mind, and when he was fiddling at a dance a few days after his engagement, he actually grew so nervous while he watched her take the "Cincinnati" step and then "mosey" down the center of the field that he lost his time, and finally "broke down in a regular giggle," and had to begin all over again, to the hilarious delight of the older men and the mocking derision of his recent rivals.

"De princip'lest trouble wid a' ingaged fiddler," Phil chuckled as he played, "is dat he don't nuver git a chance sca'cely to dance wid 'is gal hisself; but he can worry her pardner an' make him come to any time he chooses." Saying which, he played so fast that Petty's fat partner tumbled all over himself and fell sprawling.

Phil had as little money as any young man in the county, and as slight financial prospects. A fiddler need never starve on a Southern plantation,—that is, if he fiddles well enough,-but neither may he grow rich.

True, he easily earns his three dollars a night, with an occasional five, while the laborer in the field is glad to get his dollar a day; but the fiddler, as a rule, is in requisition only on Saturday nights at best, and so, unless he has some sub-trade, living comes hard.

Phil had no sub-trade. He was, as he was fond of boasting, "jes a nachel fiddlin' fiddler, f'om de ground up." Indeed, he so loved his art-there are arts the practice of which in certain conditions reduces them to trades-that he often said he knew that, to borrow his words:

"Ef de Lord 'll on'y gimme a stiddy job at fiddlin' when I git to heaven, 'stid o' tacklin' a clumsy ole harp, I know I'll soon be able to play for de angels to fly by." Indeed, with this thought in mind, he had even evolved out of his imaginative genius several racy compositions which, with onomatopoetic instinct, he called "flipflap wing-pieces," which were so suggestive that one, listening, might close his eyes and fancy himself floating away as in a dream of flying.

It is hard on a fellow to be engaged to be married and to have no money. It is hard even on a Southern plantation, where money counts for so little and most available things are virtually free-most, but not all.

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