EKUPTION OF THK SOUFKIERE TN ST. VINCENT. 817 



to US to be coiupiiraMc to the siinidinites of tlic Kit'cl iiiid many other 

 modern volcaiuc districts. Tbev are eertaiidy (luitc uidike true plu- 

 tonic diorites, lioth in th(Mr structure and in tln^ character of their 

 minerals. 



It ma}'^ l)e noted that none of these rocks are characteristic of this 

 eruption, but all ckii be found among" the older materials of the hill. 

 The hardened, baked sediments were well known to the C'aribs, who 

 have long used them for the manufacture of their Hner stone imple- 

 ments. The feldspar-horid)lende blocks were found by us among the 

 older rocks, and in some [)laces even as rounded masses enveloped in 

 the old lavas. Some of th(^ fresher bond)s in the river beds and on 

 the seashore can hardly l)e distinguished from those which were the 

 product of this eruption, though undoubtedly of much old(>r date. 



At Kingstown, as in Barbados, the deposit t)f xolcanic dust and sajid 

 was so slight that, owing to the heavy tropical rains and the rapid 

 growth of tropical vegi^tation, it readily disai)peared, and when we 

 arrived it was necessary to make careful seai'ch to find traces of it. 

 In St. Vincent, to the south of Chateaid^elair, on the leeward side, and 

 from ^ miles south of (leorgetown, on the windward side, the country 

 had very much its normal appearance. To the north of these points, 

 however, a sheet of volcanic ejecta covered the ground. Where it 

 was thin it was rapidly disappearing. Every shower washed nuich of 

 the liner matter into the streams, which were flowing full of sand and 

 lapilli to the sea. In the fields the arrowroot was pushing up through 

 the layer of ash and covering it with a mantle of green leaves. 

 Around Georgetown the deposit is from 1 to ;> feet deep, and some of 

 the blocks are a foot in diameter. On some of the sugar-cane flelds 

 in the Carib country the ash lies -t feet deep, while on the higher 

 slopes of the hill it is fi'oni ."> feet to over 1^ feet (where it has gath- 

 ered in the hollows). On the leeward side the ash is very deep in the 

 valleys of the Wallibu and Kozeau Dry rivers, but north of Larikai it 

 is much thinner — not above a foot or two. Phe north side of the 

 mountain has, for reasons to be subsequ(Mitly discussed, received 

 conn)aratively little of the deposit, and at Point Espagnol, Owia, 

 Fancy, and (^uashie Point, along the north shore, the clifl's and the 

 country' for sonu^ short distance behind them are perfectly green and 

 flourishing. 



On the south side of the Soufriere a deep and broad valley has been 

 eroded in the soft volcani(; ash and ag-glomerate of which this part of 

 the hill consists. It runs almost across the island, betweiMi the Morne 

 Garu Mountain and the Soufrier(\ and it is this \allcy which has 

 received the gicater part of the (\)ecta of this erii])tion. The streams 

 which flow into it the Wallibu River on the west and (he IJabaca Di'v 

 River on th(^ east have had tluMr courses Hlled with line, hot sand 

 mixed with coarse bond)s and ejected blocks. We were told that on 



