2 78 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



falling on St. Pierre, miles from the nearest crater, was still * white 

 hot.' All accounts agree as to the immensity and blackness of the 

 clouds cast out from Mont Pelee with each explosion; and all agree in 

 indicating that an important constituent of these clouds was gas, at 

 least in part heavier than air, and at least in part inflammable. These 

 eruptions are especially notable for the extravasation of material in 

 gaseous form; but the gases have not yet been measured or even iden- 

 tified with any approach to precision. Thus far no quantitative esti- 

 mates have been made of the aggregate amount of matter erupted from 

 either Antillean volcano; but it seems probable that the total from 

 both will not exceed one or two cubic miles, i. e., probably less than 

 a third of that thrown out by Krakatoa alone in the memorable out- 

 break of 1883. No decisive indications of subsidence of the coasts 

 or of deformation of either insular masses or sea-bottom, such as might 

 be expected to accompany the transfer of so vast a mass of material, 

 have yet been detected — indeed, the geographic effects of the erup- 

 tions seem to be inconsiderable. Nor were there notable tidal waves 

 anywhere in the Antillean region, save the outflows and subsequent 

 inrushes in the St. Pierre harbor, ascribed by Hill to the atmospheric 

 disturbance; and even these air- waves were of but limited extent, as 

 indicated by the absence of records at meteorologic stations more 

 remote than that on St. Kitt's, some 200 miles north of Martinique. 



The most impressive part of Pelee's lesson is the tale of terrible 

 mortality due to the ill-chosen site of St. Pierre. The convex slopes of 

 the great dome stretching northward and eastward from the crater are 

 still clad in verdure ; Morne Eouge, the high-lying suburb on the prin- 

 cipal salient stretching out from the crater, suffered nothing mora 

 serious than startling tremors and disagreeable dust-showers; it was 

 only in the topographic funnel leading from the crater to the indented 

 roadstead that the destruction was complete. Looking back over her 

 history, it is easy to see that St. Pierre was founded with no more fore- 

 sight than that of the spider spinning her web across a frequented 

 path ; the sacrifice of the city was but the necessary price of shortsight ; 

 yet if future dwellers on the Antilles, and the folk of other volcano- 

 ridden regions, but profit by the experience of St. Pierre, the sacrifice 

 may not be wholly vain. 



So far as indicated by external manifestations, the internal mech- 

 anism of the Antillean volcanoes was in no way unprecedented or even 

 peculiar, save, perhaps, in the high ratio of gaseous ejectamenta and the 

 vast extent of magnetic disturbance and even these features may not 

 be new, but only the outcome of more refined observations than those 

 of earlier generations. 



The internal mechanism of Mont Pelee and La Souffriere is fairly 



