324 KKUPTION OF THE SOUFRIEEE IN ST. VINCENT. 



emitted the tremendous explosions of May T, 19(»2, It was. as we 

 saw it, an impressive spectacle, its naked, rug-ged walls of rock looking 

 down on the steaming lakes below. 



Apart from the changes which have taken place within the crater 

 and tlie deposits of ash which have formed in the river valleys and on 

 the surface of the hill, the only other important geological modifica- 

 tion of the country has been the disappearance of a narrow strip of 

 coast along the leeward side of the island. Near the mouth of the 

 Wallilni, and from thence northward to Morne Ronde, the sea has 

 encroached on the land for perhaps 200 yards. Below Wallibu plan- 

 tation there stood a village of laborers' huts on a low, fiat beach with 

 a blufi" behind. Here the sea now washes the foot of a clitf some 30 

 feet high. This clifl* consists of soft tuffs covered with several feet of 

 new, hot ashes, and is in an unstable condition, as masses are con- 

 stantly falling down from its face. In this way a new beach is now 

 forming in front of it. It is agreed by those who knew the district 

 before the eruption that not onl}^ has the old beach disappeai-ed, which 

 carried the village and the public road, but that part of the blufi" 

 behind has also subsided. We were informed by Mr. T. M. McDon- 

 ald, who is intimately accpiainted with this coast line, that similar 

 subsidences had also taken place, though on a nnich smaller scale, at 

 several places farthei north. There is no evidence elsewhere of any 

 changes of level of land and sea. The tide marks on the rocks and the 

 landing stages at the villages enabled us to ascertain that the level of 

 high water was at any rate within a few inches of what it had been 

 before. It was clear that the alterations in the coast line were due to 

 local subsidence of the foreshores, and that they had mostly affected 

 loose and ill-consolidated deposits, such as beach gravels and the fans 

 of alluvium which had formed at the mouths of the streams. 



The submarine slopes on the leeward side of St. Vincent are A^er}^ 

 steep, averaging about 1 in 4. Often within half a mile of the shore, 

 or sometimes even less, the depth is over 100 fathoms. It seems most 

 probable that, owing to the concussions and earthquakes produced })y 

 the explosions, some of the less coherent accumulations on these steep 

 slopes slipped bodily into the deep. On this supposition most of the 

 facts would be explained, l)ut at the same time it is possil)le that at 

 Wallibu the inner margin of the depressed tract may be a fault line. 

 It has a very straight trend, and it is a curious fact that this shore was 

 formerly known as Hot Waters. This might indicate the existence of 

 a fissure up which hot springs were rising. 



When we arrived at Martinique we had the ])leasure of meeting 

 Professor Lacroix, the head of the French scientific conunission, which 

 had spent some tinu^ in making a preliminary survey of Mont Pelee and 

 the north end ot th(^ island, and from him we obtained nuich valu- 

 able information regarding the sequence of events and the geological 



