VOLCANOES OF THE LESSER ANTILLES 
OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE ACTIVE VOLCANOES 
OF MARTINIQUE, ST. VINCENT AND GUADELOUPE! 
By Edmund Otis Hovey 
T. PELE and the ruined city of 
St. Pierre at its base hold chief in- 
terest on the island of Martinique. 
The old summit plateau of the 
voleano is 4050 feet above the sea. This 
formerly bore the pool of fresh water known 
as ‘‘Lac des Palmistes,” but there is no trace 
now of the old lake basin under the coating 
of ten to fifty feet of new ash that covers the 
plateau. The new cone, which stands as the 
enduring monument of the great eruption of 
1902-3, nearly fills the old crater adjoining 
the plateau and rises some five hundred feet 
above it. The famous spine, or obelisk, 
which rose more than six hundred feet 
farther into the air, disappeared nearly ten 
years ago through disintegration, and the 
cone as viewed from the sea, presents a flat 
top, whose apparent smoothness does not 
prepare a visitor for the actual ruggedness 
1 Dr. Edmund Otis Hovey, curator of geology 
and invertebrate paleontology in the American 
Museum, has returned from the first expedition 
undertaken with the assistance of the Heilprin 
Exploration Fund. This fund was established in 
1914 by relatives of the noted explorer and geog- 
rapher, the late Angelo Heilprin, for the purpose 
of aiding geographical work under the auspices 
of the American Museum. On account of Pro- 
fessor Heilprin’s well-known work on the 1902— 
1903 eruptions of Mt. Pelé, Martinique, it was 
considered particularly appropriate that the first 
work under the fund should concern the active 
volcanoes of the Lesser Antilles in continuation of 
the work already done by the American Museum 
in 1902, 1903 and 1908. The object of the visit 
was to make a comparison of conditions past and 
present, in connection with assembling for publi- 
cation all previous observations on the eruptions. 
The first stop was made at Guadeloupe where 
sixteen days were spent, three of which were 
passed on the summit of the Soufriére. On 
Martinique eleven days were spent in camp on 
the old summit plateau of Mt. Pelé, while on 
St. Vincent more than three weeks were given 
to the study, twelve days of the time being 
spent in camp on the volcano. Many specimens 
were brought back to New York to illustrate the 
changes that have taken place in the rocks during 
the past seven years, and scores of photographs 
were taken to add to the extensive collections 
already in the possession of the Museum as a 
result of former expeditions. 
254 
of surface which he finds on climbing the 
mountain. 
In 1908 when I last visited Martinique the 
new cone was seamed with fissures which dis- 
charged great volumes of steam and gave 
temperatures as high as 500 degrees C. (932 
degrees F.). Considerable steam is still 
issuing from these vents, but there are no 
temperatures exceeding 100 degrees C. (212 
degrees F.). The fumarole area and the 
plateau on the west side of the mountain, 
between the rivers Blanche and Claire mid- 
way between sea and summit, which com- 
prised vents giving temperatures of nearly 
500 degrees C. in 1908 have likewise greatly 
diminished in activity, although vents were 
found which even now give a temperature of 
128.5 degrees C. (265 degrees F.). On the 
whole however it is evident that the activity 
of the voleano has greatly and continually 
diminished since the outbursts of 1902-1903, 
and apparently there is no present danger of 
recrudescence. 
On the east or windward side of the vol- 
cano, the vegetation has reéstablished itself 
to the summit of the mountain, and even the 
forest is beginning to reassert itself. The 
whole aspect of this side of the volcano is 
verdant and peaceful, and gives no indication 
of the devastation of thirteen years ago; 
even the rocks of the new cone are more or 
less thickly coated with moss, while the side 
and top of the old cone are covered with 
grass, ferns and bushes, in addition to moss 
and lichens. On the summit plateau we 
found an abundance of red raspberry bushes 
bearing flowers and green and ripe fruit. 
Sugar plantations on the west side of 
Mt. Pelé have been reinstated as far as the 
Roxelane River, within the border of the 
original zone of annihilation, while the 
ruined city of St. Pierre now contains about 
thirty new buildings of durable construction 
and a resident population of possibly two 
hundred people. 
The southwest side of the voleano lying 
between the Seche and Blanche rivers, which 
