446 FIRST .TEAR SCIENCE 



mountain. In* a hollow bowl-like depression at the top 

 lay a beautiful little lake some 450 feet in circumference. 

 The mountain and lake were pleasure resorts for the peo- 

 ple of the city of St. Pierre. According to legend this 

 mountain had been violently eruptive, but in historic time 

 there had been no indication of this except one night in 

 1851 when the volcano had grumbled and a slight fall of 

 volcanic ash was found in the morning over some of the 

 surrounding region. 



On April 25, 1902, people began to see smoke rising 

 from the vicinity of the mountain and from this time on 

 till the final catastrophe smoke and steam came out in 

 small quantities. By May 6 the volcano was in full erup- 

 tion. On the morning of May 6 the cable operator at 

 St. Pierre cabled, " Red-hot stones are falling here, don't 

 know how long I can hold out." This was the last dispatch 

 sent over the cable. 



About 8 o'clock on the morning of the 8th a great cloud 

 of incandescent ash and steam erupted, swept rapidly down 

 the mountain toward St. Pierre and in less than three 

 minutes killed 30,000 people, set the city on fire and de- 

 stroyed 17 ships at anchor in the harbor. Thus within 

 two weeks from the time of the first warning a rich and 

 densely populated region was made a desolate, lifeless, fire- 

 swept desert. 



213. The Azores. About 800 miles west of Portugal 

 rises from the depths of the Atlantic a group of nine islands, 

 the Azores. They have an area of about 1000 square miles, 

 and the soil is very fertile. The islands are mountainous, 

 one of the mountains rising to between 7000 and 8000 

 feet above the sea. Like other lofty islands of the deep 

 ocean these are volcanic. Although at present not actively 

 eruptive they abound in hot springs and have frequent 

 earthquakes. 



