MARTINIQUE EXPEDITION 33 



ST. PIERRE AND MT. PELE IN 1908. 



READERS of the American ^Museum Journal will remember 

 that the Museum sent an expedition to ^Martinique and St. 

 Vincent in 1902, directly after the beginning of the series of 

 eruptions that made that year famous in the annals of vulcanology. 

 The following year the ^Museum sent a second expedition to observe the 

 changes that had taken place in the two volcanoes, particularly those at 

 ]\It. Pele, Martinique, through the extrusion of the great "spine" that 

 surmounted its eruption cone for nearly a year. Fi^e years passed; 

 the spine fell to pieces, entirely altering the form of the summit cone of 

 Mt. Pele; eruptions of debris entirely ceased in July, 1905, at Pele, 

 while there had been none at the Soufriere of St. Mncent after March, 

 1903; vegetation was asserting its sway over the devastated areas, and 

 human occupation was advancing again toward the craters; hence it 

 was determined to send a third expedition to the region to bring observa- 

 tions on the volcanoes up to date. 



Iveaving New York April 16, 1908, on the steamship "Guiana" of 

 the Quebec Ivine, this time accompanied by my wife, I reached Fort de 

 France, the capital of Martinique, Sunday, ten days later. Two days 

 after this we took the ancient little coasting steamer "Diamant" for Le 

 Carbet, an important town on the leeward coast about two miles south 

 of the ruined city of St. Pierre. Le Carbet occupies the site of the most 

 important settlement of the aboriginal Carib inhabitants of the island, 

 and a shrine and cross within its borders mark the spot where Chris- 

 topher Columbus is supposed to have first set foot upon ^Martinique in 

 June, 1502. 



From l,e Carbet, we made the remainder of the journey by canoe, 

 arriving at St. Pierre by ten o'clock with our various belongings and 

 settling at the little "hotel" which has been built on the Rue Victor 

 Hugo, the main street of old St. Pierre. This "hotel" boasts two guest 

 rooms and a dining room of diminutive size, and harbors a store where 

 malodorous salt cod fish and other viands are sold to passers-by; never- 

 theless, one can stay several days very comfortably at the little hostelry, 

 and it makes convenient headquarters for excursions. 



The ruins of St. Pierre look like those of a place destroyed a century 

 ago, rather than only a few years since. ]Many walls that were standing 

 on the occasion of my second visit, in the spring of 1903, have fallen. 



