MARTINIQUE AND ST. VINCENT. 



353 



can scientists say that those eruptions have no parallel in history, and 

 the electrical and gaseous phenomena make them unique — these and a 

 hundred other similar statements have absolutely no foundation in fact, 

 while other most interesting details have passed unnoticed. The fault, 



Fig. 1. St. Pierre ; showing the American Consulate and ihe Cathedral as they were 



before the eruption. 



however, does not rest with the correspondent; it rests with those at 

 home who 'cook up' cable despatches, and with those living in the 

 islands whose nerves are gone and who are thereby in an overimaginative 

 frame of mind. Thus while I was occupying a beautiful little villa 

 under the leeward slopes of Soufriere, a small thunderstorm broke about 



Fig. 2. St. Pierre: The Same General View after the Eruption of May 8, 1902. 



midnight over the mountain — thunderstorms occurred nearly every day. 

 It was described next day as follows in the local paper : 



At about three o'clock in the morning, May 30th, whilst the moon shone 

 in dazzling splendour, an enormous silvery cloud rose from the Soufriere, and 

 immediately afterwards roars, which in all probability issued from the crater,. 



vol. lxi. — 23. 



