11 FEBRUARY 1905, Page 23

The Tower of Pelee. By Angelo Heilprin. (J. B. Lippincott.

15s. net.)—The " Tower " was a strange product of the succes- sive eruptions of the great volcano of Martinique. We say " was " because it has now disappeared. At the time of its maximum height it reached nearly 1,000 ft., being from 350 ft. to 500 ft. thick at the base. (As it could not be approached, the perpendicular measurement could be exactly obtained, the lateral could not.) Mr. Heilprin gives us much information about this remarkable phenomenon, illustrated by some superb photographs. The illustrations, indeed, can hardly be matched, so effective is their representation of the volcanic phenomena. Everything that we hear, or, it may be said, see, through the medium of these photographs makes us feel that Pelee takes first place among the world's volcanoes. Among the minor nriosities of the matter is the strange coincidence that among the debris of the destroyed city were some half-charred fragments of a student's notes of a lecture,—they referred to the great eruption of Vesuvius.