34 8 To the River Plate and Back 



were sore. The cloud which overwhelmed St. Pierre 

 was denser, hotter, more heavily charged with acid 

 fumes than the one a taste or two of which I had on 

 Asama-yama, but I can imagine the awful agony of the 

 death which overtook the people of the ill-fated city on 

 the 8th of May, 1902; I have tasted it just for an 

 instant, and the memory of that little taste is enough. 



As the afternoon wore by we came under the tower- 

 ing cliffs which guard the southern coast of Dominica. 

 A silvery waterfall of great height was pouring directly 

 into the sea from a dark precipice at the very end of the 

 island. There is an air of rugged grandeur about the 

 mountains of Dominica which is most impressive. The 

 story is told that a British naval officer was once asked 

 at his Club to describe the surface of this island. He 

 took a piece of writing paper, crumpled it up, tossed it 

 upon the table, and said: There you see just how the 

 surface of the island looks." It is the most mountain- 

 ous and roughest of all the Lesser Antilles. Guadeloupe, 

 the next island in the long chain, has one peak, the 

 Soufriere, which is a little higher than the Morne 

 Diablotin on Dominica, just falling short of being five 

 thousand feet in height; but Dominica has two such 

 peaks, each of which exceed four thousand feet in 

 height above the level of the sea, one of them being 

 only a little lower than the high peak on Guadeloupe. 

 Unfortunately the darkness of night prevented us from 

 seeing much of the latter island though we passed 

 immediately under the cliffs. 



On the following morning the Captain kindly sent a 

 messenger to call me early. When I flung back the 

 curtains at the windows of my cabin the dawn was just 

 breaking over the sea. I hurriedly dressed, and went on 

 deck. The sight was calculated to awaken wonder. 



