  The hard X-ray pulsar GX 1+4 was observed several times in the last few years
with a pair of balloon-borne Xenon filled Multi-cell Proportional Counters
(XMPC). In a balloon flight made on 22 March 1995, the source was detected in a
bright state, the average observed source count rate being $8.0\pm0.2/s$ per
detector. X-ray pulsations with a period of $121.9\pm0.1$ s were detected in
the source with a broad double peak pulse feature. When observed in December
1993 with the same instrument, the pulse profile of GX 1+4 showed a single
peak. This change in the pulse profile to a double pulse structure in about 15
months indicates either activation of the opposite pole of the neutron star if
the magnetic field is asymmetric or possibly a change in the beam pattern, from
a pencil beam to a fan beam. Assuming a fan beam configuration, the pulse
profile is used to find the inclinations of the magnetic axis and the viewing
axis with the spin axis. The derived angles support the GINGA observations of a
dip in the pulse profile which was resolved to have a local maximum in one of
the observations and was explained with resonance scattering of cyclotron line
energy photons by the accretion column (Makishima et al., \markcite{maki1988},
Dotani et al., \markcite{dotani1989}.). Compared to our previous observation of
the same source with the same telescope (Rao et al., \markcite{rao1994}) a
period change rate of $0.72 \pm 0.40 s/yr$ is obtained which is the lowest rate
of change of period for this source since its discovery. Average pulse fraction
in the hard X-ray range is low (30%), consistent with its anti correlation with
luminosity as reported by us earlier (Rao et al., \markcite{rao1994}) and the
observed spectrum is very hard (power law photon index $1.67\pm0.12$).

Astrophysics