108 
May 22, Pointe d Pitre.—¥rom the new crater on the north 
side of Mont Pelée the lava is fowing in a broad stream into 
the sea. 
May 24, Fort de France.—Mont Pelée emitted a-torrent of 
lava and mud, which rushed down the northern slope and 
swept away what remained of the town of Basse Pointe. New 
fissures also opened in the side of the mountain. 
May 24, S¢. Vincent.—Rumblings are heard and vapour is 
still issuing from different points on the Soufriére, and lava is 
still flowing, 
May 24, Hamburg.—A fall of so-called ‘blood rain’ 
occurred in Hamburg and district. . It was found that the 
phenomenon was due to the presence of numerous insects 
(Carabus cocctnel/a), and it is suggested that they were driven 
with volcanic dust from Martinique. 
May 25, Fort de France.—Mont Pelée is fairly quiet, 
although there have been eruptions of ashes which 
covered the extreme north of the island. The new crater 
is active. : 
May 25, Geneva.—Grey snow fell in the canton of Lucerne. 
The heaviest fall was at Langenthal. When it melied, a 
substance resembling ashes covered the grass. 
May 26, Vienna.— At noon to-day the seismological apparatus 
at the observatory of Laibach, Carniola, recorded strong earth- 
quake shocks within a distance of 473 miles. 
May 27, “ort de France.—A fresh and very violent eruption 
has taken place. The crater has projected a heavy rain of ashes 
and gravel over the north of the island. At the same time 
thick clouds charged with electricity floated in the air. 
’ 
The fears that existed amongst those who escaped 
the disasters which took place between May 7 and 
1o that volcanic wrath was not expended have been 
fully realised. Devastation has succeeded. devastation, 
fertile slopes have been doubly buried, new craters have 
been opened and molten rock yet flows. On Thursday, 
May 8, at about 11.50 a.m. in our time, Mont Pelée did 
its worst.. La Soufriére commenced earlier, and fought 
the heavens and all within its reach for several days. 
Next came a period of comparative tranquillity, Pelée 
for twelve days and La Soufriére for seven, but the 
hopes that this created were destined to be rudely 
shattered by terrific explosions and fresh bombardments. 
Surely we may now expect, although spasmodic ejections 
of vapours, ash and lava will yet occur, that these Titans 
must, by a process of natural exhaustion, sink back to 
their original quiescent state. But what about the 
nerve-shaken survivors who yet feel tremblings of the 
ground and yet, breathe fumes wafted downwards from 
the peaks which dominate their homes? 
During the preliminaries which ushered in the great 
explosion, when the air was filled with noxious exhal- 
ations and soft white ash carpeted streets as if the 
doomed who remained within their houses were to pass 
away without hearing the hurrying footsteps of those 
who rushed aimlessly along in their endeavours to 
escape, paver nosters were heard from thousands on 
their knees. Both men and women lost their reason, a 
mental paralysis was far-reaching, while the sincerest 
prayers that were ever offered were accompanied by 
hysteria. 
Many sought refuge in the churches, where sacra- 
ments were exposed and services were held. Here, with 
eyes beyond tears, multitudes with terror graven on their 
faces confessed and prayed, listened to the exhortations 
of their pastors and the thunderings of the mountain, 
awaiting their end. During this reign of terror, which 
lasted for five long days and nights, no doubt many 
succumbed. 
Then came the final crash, and with a blast of poisonous, 
suffocating gas, a whirlwind of flame, and beneath a rain 
of hot ash and blocks of rock, a fair township and its sur- 
rounding hamlets which had nestled on Pelée’s western 
strand were seen nomore. Only one, we are told, escaped 
the deadly gas and fire. He was a negro charged with 
NO. 1700, VOL. 66] 
NATURE 
[ May 29, 1902 
murder, shut up in a subterranean prison. The destruc- 
tion was even more complete and terrible than that 
which was accomplished by brimstone and fire in the 
days of Lot. ~~ 
When the more violent thunderings ceased, let us con- 
sider what next happened amongst the survivors around 
the desert of desolation. The majority rose from their 
knees, to be terrified by every puff of steam they saw and 
to rush from their houses at the slightest tremor of the 
ground. For years to come, not only will the eruptions 
in Martinique and St. Vincent form a subject of conversa- 
tion, but the month of May and the year 1902 will, like 
the twenty-seventh year of Uzziah, when a mountain near 
Jerusalem was moved 500 paces and the temple rent in 
twain, mark a period from which to date events. No 
doubt survivors are yet pouring into each other’s ears 
fresh tales of horror, whilst grumblings in the distant 
hills result in delirium and prayers. Many will no doubt 
sing hymns and devote themselves to religious exercise, 
and perform acts of penance. Noorthouck, in his 
“History of London,” writing about the effects of earth- 
quakes and referring to that which occurred in the West 
Indies in 1691, tells us that ‘such intermittent fits of 
reformation excited by fear resemble death-bed repen- 
tances too much to merit any encomium.” 
Although Noorthouck’s view is sustained by the action 
of those who had courage to back cupidity by returning 
to the still smoking débris which represented St. Pierre 
and rob from corpses, yet those who write the history of 
this disaster will no doubt find that the shock which the 
nervous system of survivors sustained has had some lasting 
effect. By this time, no doubt, not only in the West 
Indies, but throughout the world, these eruptions have 
afforded materials for many sermons and moral dis- 
courses, and for some time to come a cloud of smoke 
from the throats of Pelée or the Soufriére will claim a 
misericordta in response. 
After the disaster which overtook Jamaica in 1691, we 
understand that a sentence was interpolated in the 
Litany as used in that island, whilst the special prayers 
which have been formulated in consequence of volcanic 
disturbances are numerous throughout the world. In the 
history of nations we read ‘that these outbursts have re- 
sulted in officially ordered prayers, gifts to temples, 
special services, the repeal of taxes considered to be 
unjust, and in many other directions have had a more or 
less permanent effect upon the social, religious and civil 
lives of many people. 
Those who dwell in countries like our own, where dis- 
plays of volcanic activity are unknown, possibly think 
themselves beyond the pale of the emotional influences 
which they exert. When, however, they call to mind the 
fact that the vulgar of many nations, to use the words of 
Buffon, have regarded volcanoes as the mouths of hell, 
their bellowings to be the cries of the damned and the 
eruptions the effects of the fury and despair of the 
wretched prisoners, and add to this the fact that through- 
out all history equally strange ideas have immediately 
followed on the heels of unusual displays of volcanic and 
seismic activity, it is difficult to suppose that any nation — 
can exist that has not suffered or been benefited by these 
mental aberrations. In Japan we have the myth of the © 
buried cat-fish which shakes the empire, and the effect 
of ‘this poetical idea is met with in the pictures and art 
of that empire ; whilst parallel stories with their parallel 
effects are found in many other countries. The strange 
thing is that these emotional creations seem to spread 
far beyond the limits of the ashes and the tremblings 
which produced them, to flourish where the imaginative 
faculty is the strongest. Although we are without vol- 
canoes, we have only to recall names like Pluto, Vulcan 
and Poseidon and the line in the Decalogue which tells 
we are not to make any likeness of that which is in the 
earth beneath to realise that volcanic activities have had 
