ERUFTION OF THE SOUFEIERE IN ST. VINCENT. 319 



the trees all bare, their leaves stripped b}- the falling- cinders; Imt few 

 branches were broken, and no tpees had been uprooted or cast down. 

 The woodwork of the houses was unburnt, thoug^h the roofs of some 

 of the verandas and of the laborers' huts had collapsed from, the 

 weight of ashes that had fallen on them. Many people were killed on 

 these estates. The survivors described to us how" the dark cloud had 

 rolled down from the mountain, and how hot and suiiocatino- the air 

 had been when it enveloped them. But it was evident that the veloc- 

 ity of the blast was not above that of an ordinary gale, and the dust it 

 carried, though hot, was not incandescent. 



At Lot 14 it was seen that many trees had their limbs twisted ofl' 

 and broken, and some of the negroes' houses had taken fire (probably 

 mostly from hot falling bombs). The blast was more violent here, 

 but not hot enough to set tire to the woodwork or char the givoii wood 

 of the standing timber. 



On the Hat ground above the plantation l)uiklings (at an (devation 

 of a])out 1,000 feet) a further stage of devastation was encountered. 

 The tields were here swept bare, the trees broken down, though not as 

 a rule uprooted, and their smaller branches swept away; a deep layer 

 of bhick sand covered the crops of sugar cane. The ])last Avas here a 

 violent gale. 



A little farther up the etiects of the blast were remarkable. Enor- 

 mous trees had been uprooted and cast down. Their leaves and tiner 

 ))ranches, of course, had disappeared. In every case the fallen trunks 

 pointed directly away f i-om the crater. Even the great cotton trees, 

 10 feet or more in diameter, were broken otf or uprooted. The smaller 

 trees had in a few cases been swept away like straws. The larger 

 were merely cast down, and lay side b}' side, their tops dii'ccted down 

 the valley, their roots toward the summit of the mountain. Most 

 were charred, some deeply, ])ut, as the wood was green, ou\y the 

 smaller branches had been consumed. The eti'ect was like that pro- 

 duced by a violent hurricane, only more complete, for many of these 

 trees had withstood the hurricane which ruined St. Vincent in 1898. 

 At the lower limit of this region some curious effects of the hot sand 

 blast could be seen. Where any branches or trunks were still stand- 

 ing they invariably showed themselves to be burnt and eroded on one 

 side — that next the crater — the wood having been charred and the 

 charred material removed by the action of a hot sand l)last. On the 

 side away from the crater the original bark was still left unburnt, 

 but dry and peeling off; that is, there had been no erosion on the 

 sheltered or lee side of th(^ stems. The wood was too green to take 

 tire, but the sand had been sufficiently hot to char the surfaces which 

 were exposed to it. 



Farther up the hill — that is to say, above the 1,500 feet level — there 

 was little left of the rich ti-opical vegetation which had covered it 



