Description of the Eruption of Souffrier Mountain. 67 



the product of different species of S77iilax, &c. Mean- 

 while it may be observed, that Smilax cailuca is one of the 

 more common of the North American species ot the pcnusj 

 and that the matured fruit, with its Caoutchouc, is greedily 

 devoured by sonic species of birds, especially certain species 

 of Te.tr ao. 



Has Caoutchouc been observed in the fruit, &c. of anv of 

 the European species of Smilax, or in any of the other 

 genera belonging to the natural family of Asparagoldt-ce? 

 This is a great genus in North and South Anurica. The 

 berries of that singular plant, the foetid Smdax herlacea^ 

 whose flowers, both male and female, having the strong 

 carrion smell of some Siape/ice, ike. solicit files to deposit 

 their larvae upon them, seem to contain no Cautchouc. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE ERUPTION OP SOUFPRIER MOUN- 

 TAIN, ON THURSDAY NIGHT, THE JOTHof APRIL, 1812, 

 IN THE ISLAND OF ST. VINCENT. 



The Souffrier Mountain, the most northerly of the lofty 

 chain running through the centre of this island and the 

 highest of the whole, as computed bv the uio'>t accurate 

 survey tliat has yet been taken, h;;d for some time past in- 

 dicated much disquietude; and from the extraordinary fre- 

 quencv and violence of L-arihquakes, which are calculated to 

 have exceeded two hundred vvithin the last year, poi tended 

 some great movement or eruption. The apprehension, 

 however, was not so immediate as to restrain curiosity, or 

 to prevent repeated visits to the crater, which of late had 

 been more numerous than at anv former period, even up 

 to Sunday last, the 26tli of April ; when some gentlemen 

 ascended it, and remained there for some time. Nothing 

 unusual was then remarked, or any external difl'erence ob-' 

 served, except rather a stronger emission of snu)ke from 

 the interstices of the conical hill at the bottom <jf the cra- 

 ter. To those who have not visited this romantic and won- 

 derful spot, a slight description of it, as it lately stood, is 

 previously neces^aty and indispensable to form any con- 

 ceplDU ot it, and to the belter understanding the account 

 which follows ; lor no one living can expect to see it again 

 in the perfection and beauty in which it was on Sunday, 

 the 26ih instant. 



About i'()u() feet from the level of the sea, (calculating 

 from coiijecmrc,) on the south side of the moiuuain and 

 rather more than two-lbirds of its height, opens a circular 

 «hasm, sumewhat exceeding halt a mile in diameter, and 



9 between 



euiitg 



