THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



of the rim. The old crater lake, for which the volcano had been 

 famous before the eruption, had disappeared, of course, but a 

 small boiling lake had formed in the bottom of the great cauld- 

 ron, since the last outburst. Ever since the great eruption of 

 1 812, La Soufriere had had two craters in its top, a small one 

 having been formed at that time just outside the large old pit 

 on its northeast side. Did this, so-called, "New" crater partici- 

 pate in the May eruptions? This important question was de- 

 cided June 9 when I stood upon its edge in company with Mr. 

 Curtis and a negro guide. The condition of the interior, of the 

 saddle between it and the large crater and of the rim itself 

 showed that the small, or 181 2, crater had felt no sympathy 

 with the large crater in the eruption of May of the present 

 year. This eruption had returned to the outlet made use of in 

 the eruptions of 17 18 and before. 



After an all too short stay upon St. Vincent, Mr. Curtis and 

 I left on June 10 for Martinique. On our way north we chartered 

 in St. Lucia a sloop of eleven tons register, which we kept with 

 us during our stay near the scene of action of Mt. Pelee. We 

 passed through St. Pierre several times and traversed the ad- 

 joining hills, or "mornes," and the slopes of the volcano in sev- 

 eral directions. Four times (June 18, 20, 24 and 26) we stood 

 upon the rim of the great active crater and looked upon a scene 

 of wild and terrifying grandeur within and without the throat 

 and gorge from which had issued the steam, gases, dust and 

 stones that carried death and destruction to the beautiful city 

 of St. Pierre and its inhabitants, lying in a cul-de-sac in the 

 path of the volcanic tornado-blast, as helpless as an animal in 

 a trap. We were the first to ascend the mountain from the 

 west since the eruptions began on ]\lay 8, and we followed the 

 plateau and ridge between the Seche and Blanche rivers on June 

 24 and 26. Our days were not devoid of exciting and even 

 dangerous experiences, but discussion of such features must be 

 left to another time. 



The devastation wrought by the eruption cannot be appre- 

 ciated from a verbal description, and even photographs do not 

 convey an adequate idea of what has happened, unless one is 



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