VOLCANIC EEUrTIONS ON MARTINIQUE AND ST. VINCENT. 839 



])ombai'dnient of missiles thirt swept throuoh the city, as just men- 

 tioned, from the falling of walls and other objects, from the tire that 

 followed the volcanic blast, from nervous shock, etc.; but opinions 

 diti'er as to the principal cause of the loss of life. The opinions 

 referred to fall in two groups: ((/) Those favoring- the idea that gases 

 were the deadly agency, and (/>) those which refer the loss of life 

 to the eiiects of steam charg-ed with hot dust. 



{(() Certain observers are strongly inclined to the opinion that Mont 

 Pelee, or moreaccuratel}', the " Riviere Blanche su])crater," discharged 

 gases which asphyxiated the inha])itants of St. Pierre. As to the 

 nature of the supposed gases, at least two suggestions have hoou made — 

 one that it was mainly sulphureted hydrogen, and the other, carlwn 

 dioxide or some siiuilar gas. Coupled with the tirst of these sugges- 

 tions is the further hypothesis that gas explosions took place within 

 the cit}" and added to the deadly effect of the asphyxiating gases. The 

 hypothesis that gases were the direct cause of the greater part of the 

 loss of life, as claimed at St. Pierre, has not, so far as I am aware, l)een 

 extended to St. Vincent, l)ut the dead and the injured on the two 

 islands met their fate in precisely similar ways. The evidence bearing 

 on the question under consideration has been judiciously discussed by 

 George Kennan, and the testimon}' of the sole survivor of the disaster 

 of May S placed on record. Had noxious gases, tuid especially such 

 heav}' ones as carbon dioxide and sulphureted hydrogen, been swept 

 over the city in suthcient quantiti(\s to kill nearly all the inhabitants, 

 it is evident that the occupant of a cell below the level of the adjacent 

 street would have been in a most dangerous position. The t(\stimony 

 of the prisoner referred to, as summarized by Kennan, after a critical 

 eross-examination, is that he "" heard no explosions or detonations; saw 

 noHanie; smelled no sulphurous gas; and had no feeling of suffocation. 

 He was simply burned 1)}' hot air and hot ashes which came into his 

 cell through tlie door grating." 



It is impracticable to review in this essay all the evidence wliich it 

 is claimed sustains the h^qoothesis of asphyxiation by gases. This 

 side of the discussion, however, has been well presented l)y K. T. Hill 

 in the National Geographic Magazine, in the Century Magazine, and 

 in Collier's Weekly, and b}" Angelo Heilprin" in McClure's Magazine. 

 (See list at end of this essay.) 



(A) The efficiency of steam charged with hot dust, or of cither of 

 these agencies alone, to cause scalds, burns, and cvcmi instantaneous 

 death, is not open to dou))t. The question is: Was the steam and hot 

 dust swept overtho portions of Martinique and St. Vincent at the time 

 so many thousand people were killed the chi(^f agency in their desti'uc- 

 tion :! Cumulative evidence has been added to the \'arious classes of 



« Since tliis was wrrtten Heilprin lias])iibliyhed Iuh liighly instructive ])ook, Mont 

 Pelee and the Tragedy of Martinicjue, in which the i)rincii)al cause of death in 8t. 

 Pierre, Morne Rouge, etc., is ascribed to dust-laden steam. 



