1890.] NATURAL SCIKXCHS OK PHILADELrillA. 295 



bazoo the inhabitants suppo^;e(l an enemy to be advancing witli 

 heavy artillery and they prepared to put their cities in defence. 



One of the harndess effects of this terrible explosion was noticed 

 in Barbados, which island lies ninety-five miles to the windward of 

 St. Vincent. The day following the eruption (May 1st), a sound 

 resembling heavy cannonading was heard to the eastward ; the in- 

 habitants of course supposed the English and French fleets to be 

 engaged in battle ; at sunset the cannonading died away. The next 

 morning the sun did not appear to rise ; the island was envclo])ed 

 in darkness, which increased as time advanced. The negroes im- 

 agined that the Day of Judgment had come and rushed in a panic 

 to the churches. Nor were the whites any wiser, they too were 

 seized by the panic started by the blacks and ruslied with tliem to 

 their places of worship. 



A heavy, quiet rain of impalpable powder fell over the island : the 

 trade wind blew not, the roar of the surf had died away ; the dead 

 quiet was only broken by the fall of some tree, crushed to the earth 

 by the weight of the amassing dust. 



Sir Joseph Banks awoke that morning and found everything 

 shrouded in darkness ; he went to the window to open it, but could 

 not ; he felt the ash that had sifted in upon the sill, and said : " The 

 volcano of St. Vincent has broken out at last and this is the dust 

 of it." 



Explanation of Plate IV. 



Fig. 1. View of basaltic columns of Cumberland Valley, St. 



Vincent, B. W. I. 

 Fiff. 2. View of the Vincelonian crater lookin*: north-west. 



