MARTINIQUE AND ST. VINCENT. 365 



there were noisy rumblings and steam was emitted ; actual eruption is 

 reported from April the twenty-sixth on, and yet the city was not 

 evacuated. In St. Vincent local earthquakes have been on the increase 

 for a 3'ear in the neighborhood of the volcano; people were actually 

 frightened away from Windsor Forest on the northwest slope of 

 Soufriere, as far back as May, 1901, by rumblings and quakings. The 

 water of the lake has been seen to bubble and sulphurous coatings are 

 described as being deposited on the rocks. So violent were the signals 

 early in May, especially when the news of the Guerin disaster came 

 from Martinique, that the leeward slopes of the Soufriere, at all times 

 sparsely inhabited, were abandoned. Hence the small loss of life on 

 that slope. On both islands, if the respective governments had main- 

 tained vulcanological stations with instruments, doubtless, there would 

 have been perceived a gradually increasing series of signals of different 

 sorts, tremors, sounds, sights, smells and temperatures. This record, 

 if we had it now, would be invaluable. It cannot be reconstructed. 



The question 'What actually happened in the eruptions?' involves 

 no very great difficulty. The eruptions were small manifestations 

 of a common type. Probably the Plinian eruption of Vesuvius was 

 similar; the Central American volcanoes have quite the same history;. 

 Krakatoa in 1883, Tarawera (New Zealand) in 1886, and Bandai San 

 in Japan in 1888, all present phenomena identical in the main, with 

 local variations. A slip of some sort liberated a steam column; the 

 cause of the fracture or the source of the steam is one step too far back 

 into theory to venture to treat it here. Eelease once started followed 

 old vents, water-holes, and these vents were Soufriere and Pelee. The 

 explosion that followed release of pressure tore away the walls of the 

 fissure and its violence ground the material to powder. The material 

 came from a depth where the rocks were hot, and it was heated further 

 by friction. Those who saw the eruption of Pelee on the twentieth of 

 May describe a black column of dust and rocks that looked like smoke 

 with wonderful purling, interbillowing nodes that overrode each other 

 like cauliflowers or 'brains'; this column shot up silently at first, fol- 

 lowed by heavy detonations that finally became a continuous roar. The 

 column was estimated by Lieutenant McCormick of the Potomac to be 

 at least five miles high ; he witnessed the spectacle from Fort de France. 

 Lightning shot through the great billows in all directions in a network. 

 When it reached its maximum height the column spread out like a 

 flower on its stalk and the upper edges of the hard smoke-steam masses 

 were lighted white by the rising sun. A perceptible cold wave was felt. 

 A shower of gravel took place followed by fine dust which continued 

 falling for an hour. This was the day of the funeral of Consul Prentis. 

 A visit to St. Pierre later the same day showed that a terrific blast had 



