34 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



and many streets and buildings that were plainly distinguishable then are 

 now completely obliterated as to surface indications. Earth has been 

 washed down abundantly from the denuded surrounding bluffs and 

 hill slopes, bringing grass and other seeds with it,. and the whole city^ 

 except for a few clearings, is covered with vegetation. The knotty bunch 

 grass characteristic of the Lesser Antilles is flourishing luxuriantly, 

 together with the castor-oil plant (Ricinus communis) and many bushes 

 strange to northern eyes. Here and there a mango or other tree that 

 lived through the terrible eruption blasts and the consequent burning 

 of the city is struggling to recover from its injuries and gives a little grate- 

 ful shade to the stray wanderer amid the ruins and to the cattle that are 

 being pastured where once stood the cathedral, the hospital, the theatre^ 

 the government buildings and the stores and residences of a wealthy city. 



The Rue Victor Hugo has been cleared of ash and debris for its 

 entire length from south to north; so too have been the streets connecting 

 this old artery of travel with the road to INIorne d 'Orange and the south- 

 east, with that to Fond St. Denis and thence to Fort de France and with 

 the route to ]\Iorne Rouge and the rich sugar and other estates of the 

 northeastern parts of the island. The clearing of these streets was made 

 necessary to meet the requirements of the great agricultural district that 

 was naturally tributary to St. Pierre and that now must ship out its- 

 sugar, rum and other produce by the old route. To accommodate this 

 traflSc and the travel between the region and Fort de France, a pier has 

 been built at Place Bertin near the hotel, and regular semi-weekly 

 steamboat service with Fort de France began in June. The Rue de 

 I'Hopital also has been cleared, giving access to the headquarters of the 

 police, established in the massive ruins of the old bank building, and the 

 Rue Victor Hugo has been cleared southward to give unobstructed 

 connection with the road to Le Carbet and beyond. 



On May 1, we embarked in a canoe for the mouth of the Riviere 

 Blanche to camp in its gorge, down which came the first as well as all 

 the rest of the long series of incandescent dust-laden steam-clouds that 

 burst from the great crater and cone for more than three years. Estab- 

 lishing camp on a little sand plain about two miles from the coast and 

 twelve hundred feet above the sea, I turned my attention first to the 

 neighboring fumaroles or steam vents that extended in an irregular line 

 a quarter of a mile or more toward the crater. The vents nearest the 

 crater registered a temperature of 581 degrees Fahrenheit, while 50 



