Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

EEUNIOX. 47highest point of the island when seen from the north-'n'est between St. Denisand St. Paul.Towards the eastern extremity the erxiptive lavas have developed two masses,whose cre.sts exceed 7,600 and 8,000 feet. Here is situated the semicircularGrand Enclos, whose two outer ramparts stretching seawards completeh' enclosethe Grand Brule volcano. The cirque, averaging from 800 to 1,000 feet, isperhaps the most regular formation of this kind in the whole world. It encloses aspace of about 40 square miles in extent, the encircling walls having a totallength of 28 or 30 miles. Farther west occur similar formations, and in recentFi,?.14.—The Gean-d Bcfxt.Scale 1 : 100,000.years a second "enclosure" has been developed within the first round about thecentral crater.Here eruptions are still frequent ; towards the end of the last centiuy thejoccurredat least twice a year, and between 1800 and 1860 as mauj- as twentycopious discharges were recorded by M. Maillard. The outbursts are at timesaccompanied by showers of ashes and other igneous matter, such as those slenderthreads of obsidian which the Hawaii islanders call the " hair of the goddessPele." In many parts of the Grand Bride roofs of hardened scoriae conceal thehollow passages through which the Hquid lava streams were formerly discharged,and these incrustations, which easily give way, are a source of great danger toTuiguarded wayfarers on the flanks of the volcano.Indications of upheaval to a height of 250 feet have been observed on the