May 15, 1902] 
Fort de France, and we received a shower of cinders and stones 
weighing seven toten grammes. The whole island was covered 
three millimetres thick with cinders. The panic was general, 
yet relief was soon organised. The French cruiser Swche¢ went 
to the spot, as also other vessels towing boats, which soon 
returned, bringing terrifying news. The shore is unapproachable. 
The vessels in St. Pierre roads are on fire. The heat is extreme.” 
A later message from Fort de France, published in 
Wednesday’s 7zmes, says :— 
** Access to the ruined town of St. Pierre has become more 
easy since the day before yesterday. At the Mouillage no signs 
of fire are now visible. Everything appears to have been rent 
and scattered as bya tornado. The iron gate of the Custom 
House remains standing. In the hospital the iron bedsteads 
are twisted, but bear no other traces of fire. The bed clothes 
and all other textile fabrics have completely disappeared. 
About 2000 corpses have been found in the streets. The central 
quarters of the town and the fort are buried under cinders to a 
depth of several yards. In the neighbourhood of the creek 
several houses remain intact, but the inhabitants were killed as 
if they had been struck by lightning, the bodies lying, sitting, 
or reclining in curiously diverse attitudes. 
** Smoke is issuing from the crater of the volcano. Over the 
northern slope, as well as Basse Pointe, hover clouds of hot 
cinders, and flashes and rumblings are still distinguishable 
from time to time.” 
The Soufriére volcano in the neighbouring island of St. 
Vincent has also broken out in eruption. According toa 
Times telegram from St. Lucia, the northern district of 
St. Vincent, from Chateau Belair to Georgetown, has 
been devastated by an enormous flow of lava, destroying 
everything in its path. It is reported that both the large 
craters on St. Vincent are emitting enormous volumes of 
vapour, lava and hot ashes, and that small craters are 
bursting out everywhere. No vessel can approach the 
northern shore of the island on account of the intense 
heat and steam from the craters. Heavy ashes fell in 
great quantities on a steamer 250 miles from St. Vincent, 
and many masses of rock have fallen at Kingston. It 
is stated that sixteen hundred deaths have been caused 
in St. Vincent by the eruption. 
This brief statement of the eruptions and their conse- 
quences contains the chief points of the news yet avail- 
able. We are fortunate in being able to supplement the 
reports with an article by Prof. Milne upon the subject, 
and asummary in which he gives the sequence of events. 
Sequence of Events. 
April 19.—A very heavy earthquake occurred in 
Guatemala. It was recorded in the Isle of Wight, and 
might have been recorded anywhere in the world. It 
probably indicated a sudden adjustment in the orogenic 
fold of Central America, and a change in this fold pos- 
sibly resulted in movements in the neighbouring fold 
represented by the West Indies, and hence the recent 
volcanic eruptions and earthquakes in that region. 
April 23.—Mont Pelée showed a plume of “smoke.” 
May 3.—Mont Pelée not only “smoked,” but at night 
was lighted up by the incandescent lava within its crater. 
May 4.—Mont Pelée covered the surrounding district 
with ash. 
May 5.—A stream of mud and lava were erupted and 
engulfed a sugar factory, twenty-three persons being 
buried. The sea receded 300 feet. 
May 6.—A Government Commission issued a reassuring 
report. 
May 7.—About 11 p.m. (Martinique time) a small 
earthquake from a very distant origin was recorded in 
the Isle of Wight, Edinburgh, and at other stations. 
May 8.—At 8 am. “the rain of fire” destroyed St. 
Pierre. Ships were burned and sunk by a shower of 
rocks and heated materials, which poured down for about 
fifteen minutes. At Fort de France, twelve miles distant, 
these stones were the size of walnuts. 
NO. 1698, vou. 66] 
NATURE 
oO” 
This eruption still continues, but on the roth it had so 
far decreased that the site of St. Pierre was explored, but 
no living beings were seen. 
The eruption of La Soufriére in St. Vincent com- 
menced on Monday, May 5, and on May 7 the eruption 
was violent. 
It would therefore seem that these two eruptions were 
simultaneous, and may have been brought ,about by a 
common cause. 
Martinique, which, the West Jndia Pilot tells us, is 35 
miles in length and 7 to 16 miles in breadth, “is very 
lofty and irregular in height, and may be readily distin- 
guished by three remarkable mountains of different forms, 
rising far above the general chain which runs through 
the whole of the island from N.W. to S.E., and may be 
seen about 45 miles off. The most northern of these is 
Mont Pelée, 4428 feet above the sea, rising nearly 4 
miles to the south of Cape St. Martin, and its summit, 
when seen froma distance, appears rounded, and presents 
nothing remarkable.” 
It seems to be an irony of Nature that the most 
dangerous creations should so frequently simulate the 
appearance of that which is quite ordinary. 
Prior to A.D. 79, Vesuvius was in its appearance even 
more innocent than Pelée. Spartacus and his gladiators 
camped within its crater, which, Plutarch tell us, was to 
a great extent covered with wild vines. On its flanks 
were cultivated fields, at its base the wealthy and 
populous cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. If we 
except a few slight shocks which preceded the burial of 
these two towns, there was nothing to indicate the 
terrific outburst by which this was accomplished. The 
mountain, which was “nothing remarkable” in its 
appearance, suddenly exploded, there was a rain of ash, 
and the surrounding country became a desert. 
Another illustration of the awakening of a slumbering 
Titan was Krakatoa. After a rest of 200 years, this 
mountain, on Sunday, May 20, 1883, gave symptoms of 
unrest by an eruption accompanied by shakings and 
roarings, which were loud enough to be heard even at a 
distance of 100 miles. Then for a few months there 
was comparative quiescence until August 26, when a 
crater opened near sea level and the challenged ocean 
poured in upon internal fires. The story of the battle 
which ensued, with its fearful detonations, which were 
heard at Rodriquez, 3000 miles distant, the appalling 
darkness created by black ash suspended in the atmo- 
sphere, the finer particles of which belted our globe and 
gave rise to brilliant and peculiar sunsets, the great sea 
waves which were formed to devastate surrounding 
coasts and destroy 36,000 lives, forms a well-known 
chapter in the history of vulcanology. 
Pelée, the Hawaiian goddess who from her well of 
fire serves out molten rock for the consumption of those 
with whom she is angered, gives as spin drift from her 
molten fountains tresses of her glassy hair. Possibly 
the Pelée of the Antilles, although she has not sought 
an encounter with the oceans, may give to our atmo- 
sphere exhalations and glassy particles, the evidence of 
which will be seen in meteorological observations. 
A third illustration of a mountain which to all who 
knew it was in its appearance as innocent as Primrose 
Hill, but without any premonitory warnings suddenly 
blew itself to pieces and changed the topography 
of the surrounding district, was Bandaisan, in central 
Japan. When, in 1878, the writer visited this mountain, 
to clamber through woods and vines with which its sides 
were covered and pass over a grass-covered depression 
at its summit where deer were browsing, the only indi- 
cations that this round-headed hill might be included in 
the list of active volcanoes were that at its base there 
were some hot springs, whilst on its flanks a few pieces 
of scoria were seen. Ten years later, this apparently 
