320 EKUPTION OF THE SOUFKIERE IN ST. VINCENT 



from fsunuiiit to base. Blackened remains of tree trunks were to be 

 seen, overturned or broken off near the ground and Imried in dark 

 sand. The highest parts of the mountain are as bare and desolate a 

 scene as could be imagined. The ash is 5 to 12 feet deep, and though 

 full of large Idocks and spongy bombs, is mostlj" so fine that when 

 thoroughly wet it l)ecomes a mud, very tenacious and slippery, in 

 which one sinks to the knee. In it there is a good deal of burnt 

 timber, utterly blackened and converted into charcoal. Everything 

 has been mown down, and at the same time the intense heat has con- 

 sumed all the smaller fragments and charred the larger. There is 

 nothing to show what was the velocity of the blast when it left the 

 crater. After a couple of miles it was that of a hurricane or tornado. 

 The limits ])etween the zone of uprooted trees and that of trees still 

 standing, but broken and much damaged, is surprisingly sharp. At 

 4 miles from the crater the blast was traveling at 20 to 40 miles an 

 hou]", and rapidly slowing down. This agrees with the evidence of 

 an eyewitn(\ss who saw it when it reached the sea near Chateaubelair. 

 It came over the water with a wave before it, but it did not overturn 

 the small boats which la}^ in its course. 



Another peculiar feature of this blast is the manner in wliich its 

 course was modified l)y irregularities in the configuration of the 

 ground over which it passed. To the north of the crater stands the 

 encircling crater wall already referred to as the Somma. There can 

 be no dou])t that a black cloud descended over this side of the 

 mountain, though here the devastation is comparatively slight, and it 

 is inferred that the high intervening ridge overlooking the crater 

 served as a ram})art and helpiMl to protect the country behind it from 

 the effects of tlie blast. The southern lip of the crater, on the other 

 hand, is the lower, and the avalanche of hot sand seems to have 

 poured over this lip almost like a fluid. Down the deep open valley 

 between the Soufriere and the Morne (xaru Mountain it rushed, ever 

 following the steepest descent. It clung to the valh^y bottoms and 

 coursed along them in a manner which somewhat recalls a raging 

 torrent in a ri\er. The streams in these valleys, after descending the 

 first part of the hill, tui"n sharply at a right angle toward the coast, 

 deflected i)v the opposing mass of the Morne Garu. The hot l)last 

 mostly followed these valleys, and in them it piled up enormous 

 deposits of sand, but part of it swe})t u]) the shoulders of Morne 

 Garu and tore up the heav}' timl)er which was growing there. The 

 dii'ection in which the fallen trunks point shows that tlie l)last was 

 split into two parts — one taking the east and one tUv west side of the 

 mountain rushing upwaixl o])li(pudy from below. The mountain 

 pi'otectfed the country behind, and the line of demarcation between the 

 burnt and the green forest almost corres])on(ls with tlu» di\i(ling ridge. 

 The south side is green; the north side toward the Soufriere is 

 devastated and burnt. 



