THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



A VISIT TO MARTINIQUE AND ST. VINCENT AFTER 

 THE GREAT ERUPTIONS OF MAY AND JUNE, 1902. 



HEN, early in ]\Iay, the news came that the sup- 

 posedly extinct volcanoes of Mt. Pelee, on the 

 island of Martinique, and of La Soufriere, on the 

 island of St. Vincent, had suddenly burst into vio- 

 lent eruption, destroying thousands of human lives 

 and millions of dollars' worth of property, Mr. Morris K. Jesup, 

 President of the American Museum of Natural History, per- 

 ceived the scientific value of the opportunity thus offered for 

 the study of vulcanology, and it was decided immediately to 

 send the writer to the islands as the representative of the Mu- 

 seum to investigate the phenomena of the eruptions. I left 

 New York on the United States cruiser Dixie May 14, and 

 arrived in Martinique May 21. At this time two days were 

 devoted to the study of St. Pierre and its desolation, and then 

 I went on w4th the Dixie to St. Vincent. A man-of-war is a 

 part of the country to which she belongs, so that I felt as if my 

 home-land were going away from me, when the Dixie sailed 

 from Kingstown May 29, leaving me to continue my investi- 

 gations there before returning to Martinique. I wish here to 

 express my appreciation of the hospitality of Captain R. M. 

 Berry, U. S. N., and other officers of the cruiser. 



Nearly three weeks were devoted to the study of the Soufriere 

 on St. Vincent, excursions and investigations being made from 

 both sides of the island, and my work was greatly facilitated 

 by Mr. F. AV. Griffith, government clerk, acting under general 

 instructions from Sir Robert Llewellyn, C. M. G., Governor of 

 the colony, and by T. M. MacDonald, Esq., of Wallilabou, and 

 James E. Richards, Esq., of Kingstown. My colleagues, Dr. T. A. 

 Jaggar, Jr., and Mr. George Carroll Curtis, and I, accompanied 

 by Mr. MacDonald, were the first persons to attempt the ascent of 

 the Soufriere after the great eruptions. We accomplished our 

 task on a perfect day. May 31, and were well rewarded for our 

 effort and risk. We found the crater to be a vast pit about nine- 

 tenths of a mile wide and 2400 feet deep below the highest point 



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