326 EKUPTION OF THE SOUFKIERE IN ST. VINCENT. 



hours the city was a burning pile. Another eruption followed on the 

 20th, and cast down many of the l)uilding's which were loft. Hence 

 it was difficult to be sure exactly what were the effects of the volcanic 

 blast, and what had to be ascribed to the conflagration. But we saw 

 enough to satisfy us that the hot blast was proliably no less violent 

 here than at St. Vincent. An iron statue of the Virgin, standing on a 

 stone pedestal on the wooded clitf overlooking the town, had been 

 broken off and carried 40 feet away. It lay with the head pointing to 

 the mountain, and the direction of the statue showed that the l)last 

 was traveling straight from the crater over the city. The cannon in 

 the fort had l)een overthrown and had fallen away from the mountain, 

 that is to say, in the same direction as the statue. The projecting 

 ironwork of the verandas of the houses was twisted and bent. The 

 light-houses were razed. The ships riding at anchor in the harbor 

 were lying side-on to the blast. Some were capsized, others had their 

 rigging cut clean away; only the Roddain escaped, and she was near 

 the south end of the town. It was said that one man was ])lown clean 

 off' the Rovdima. The trees which were growing in the streets were 

 uprooted and cast down. Many of them showed charring and sand- 

 blast erosion on the side which faced the crater, while the lee side was 

 still covered with the original l)ark. 



During the minute or two which this blast lasted, so much dust fell 

 on the Roddam that Captain Ford, the harbor master at St. Lucia, 

 estimated that 12(» tons were removed f rom'her decks when she arrived 

 there, and the chief engineer of the R. M. S. Esk^ who inspected her 

 for Lloyd's, told us that the depth of the layer of ash was in some 

 places 2 or 8 feet. Enough has been said to indicate the general simi- 

 larity of the volcanic phenomena in Martinique and in St. Vincent. 

 A fuller comparison, and more particularly the investigation of the 

 outstanding points of difference, is best deferred till the detailed 

 results of tlie French counnissioners' investigations are to hand. 



We were fortunate in having an opportunity of witnessing one of the 

 more important eruptions of Mont Pelee l)efore we left Martini([ue, 

 and this enabled us to see how far the actual phenomena corresponded 

 with the ideas w^e had been led to form from an inspection of the effects 

 of the earlier outbursts. On the i>th of July we were in a small sloop of 

 10 tons, the Minerva^ of Grenada, which we had hired to act as a con- 

 venient base for our expeditions on the mountain. The morning was 

 spent in St. Pierre City and among the sugar-cane plantations on the 

 lower slopes of the mountain, on the banks of the Riviere des Peres. 

 The volcano was beautifully clear. Every ravine and furrow, every 

 ridge and crag, on its gaunt, naked surface stood out clearly in the sun- 

 light. (See pi. 1.) Thin clouds veiled the sunnnit, but now and then 

 the mist would lift sufficient!}^ to show us the jagged, l)roken cliff' 

 which overlooks the cleft. From the triani»"ular fissure Avhich serves 



