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 \pm 0.2 s ^ { -1 } per detector .
X-ray pulsations with a period of 121.9 \pm 0.1 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 ^ { -1 } 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 \pm 0.12 ) .