THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



La Soufricre on the island of St. Vincent, in the chain known 

 as the Lesser Antilles or Caribbean Islands. These eruptions 

 aroused the greatest popular interest on account of the destruc- 

 tion of some 32,000 people on Martinicjue and 1600 people on 

 St. \'incent, while the interest of the scientific public was aroused 

 on account of their supposed peculiar character, and probably 

 no cataclysm of nature has been studied, photographed and 

 written about to such an extent in so short a time as have the 

 eruptions which visited these beautiful islands in 1902. The 

 writer's first investigations in these islands having been carried 

 on in the rainy season, and during and directly after the exciting 

 incidents accompanying the first terrific explosions of the vol- 

 canoes, it was thought best to make a second expedition dur- 

 ing the latter part of the dry season, to learn what changes had 

 taken place in the \"olcanoes, and to extend obscr\-ations to the 

 other islands of the group, for the purpose of making comparisons 

 between the volcanoes in action and those supposed to be ex- 

 tinct. Consequently, on February 5 the writer left New York 

 by the steamship " Caribbee" of the Quebec Steamship Company, 

 and after three months returned by the " Korona." Four weeks 

 of the time were devoted to Martinique, two weeks to St. Vincent, 

 and the remainder was divided among St. Lucia, Dominica, 

 Guadeloupe, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Ivitts, Statia and Saba. 

 The weather conditions were superb, and many valuable photo- 

 graphs were added to the Museum's already extensive collec- 

 tion of views of the region. 



L.\ WOXT.\GNE PELEE, MARTI.NIQUE. 



Undoubtedly the most striking change which has taken place 

 in Martinique is the addition to the sky-line of Pelee of the 

 new cone with its tremendous summit spine. The erujition 

 which began to make itself manifest in April, 1902, had its origin 

 in several openings around the small lake, L'Etang Sec, which 

 existed in the bottom of the enormous crater of the mountain. 

 When the writer first saw the mountain on May 21. i()02, there 

 was visible within the great crater a small cone which had been 



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