154 
The Royal Mail steamer Za P/a/a had a fall of dust on 
board when between St. Vincent and St. Lucia, while the 
barque /upiler had a heavy fall far to the eastward of 
Barbados. From the great mass which fell in the sea 
around the latter ship, actually colouring the water, it was 
known that some. extraordinary phenomenon must have 
occurred. There was also such a darkness that lamps 
were alight at an unusually early hour. 
Magnetic Disturbance. 
Dr. L. A. Bauer reports in Scvence that a magnetic 
disturbance was recorded at two magnetic observatories 
of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey on May 8, at 
7.45 St. Pierre local mean time, that is, at the time of 
the great eruption. The disturbance was distinctively a 
magnetic and not a seismic one, and hence was not re- 
corded on seismographs. The magnetograms obtained 
at Cheltenham, seventeen miles from Washington, ex- 
hibit magnetic disturbances amounting at times to 
000050 to o'00060 C.G.S. units (about 1/350 of the value 
of the horizontal intensity) and from 10’ to 15’ in 
declination, beginning at the time stated and continuing 
until midnight of May 9. 
“Until further information has been received from 
other observatories,” says Dr. Bauer, “it cannot be de- 
termined definitely whether this magnetic disturbance 
was due to some cosmic cause or came from within the 
earth’s crust and was associated with the Martinique 
eruption. The coincidence in time is, however, a re- 
markable fact.” 
Earthquake of April 19. 
Some valuable notes on the earthquake in Guatemala 
on April 19 are given by Mr. Rockstroh in a letter pub- 
lished on another page (p. 150), with a map of the district 
seriously affected. Prof. Milne obtained a record of this 
earthquake at Shide, and it was reproduced in NATURE of 
May 29 (p. 109).. Miss G. M. Johnson sends us a cutting 
from the Yorkshire Post of April 19 containing several 
letters upon an earthquake which was distinctly felt in 
parts of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on April 14. At 
Beverley the time noted was 11.51 a.m., at Greetwell 
11.45, and Hatfield 11.40. At Belton the disturbance 
shook a bedstead four inches from its place. 
Volcanic Ash from Mont Pelée. 
Prof. T. G. Bonney writes :— 
Iam indebted to Sir W. Crookes for a mounted specimen 
of the dust from Mont Pelée, which fell on the deck of the 
Xoddam. The fragments are commonly about -007” in diameter, 
but range between ‘005” and ‘o1”, minerals and rocks being in 
about equal quantity, the former consisting of labradorite, 
augite (bottle-green) and a pleochroic (green to brown) hyper- 
sthene, the latter rather scoriaceous, a brownish-grey in colour. 
I have mentioned some minor details in a short communication 
to the Geological Society. This dust has a general resemblance 
to that from the Soufricre which fell in Barbados, and both 
represent hypersthene-andesites. 
Analyses of Soufriére Dust. 
For educational purposes all the agricultural colleges in this 
country, and a number of the principal schools—Westminster, 
Harrow, Eton, Rugby, &c.—have received from Mr. Harries, 
of the Meteorological. Office, a sample of the Soufriére dust 
which descended on Barbados during the night of May 7-8. It 
had been collected by Dr. Morris, the Imperial Commissioner 
of Agriculture, as it fell, and a portion submitted to investiga- 
tion at the Government Laboratory on the spot yielded the 
following results :— 
Prof. d’Albuquerque’s chemical analysis showed the sub- 
stances soluble in strong hydrochloric acid to be :— 
Percentage. Percentage. 
Iron oxide... ada ie lesuicayeds ap ase tt 
Alumina... .. 12°5 | Sulphuric anhydride... +1 
Lime my .. 59 | Insoluble in hydro- 
Magnesia ... it 78 chloric acid :— 
Soda ee noe gee Silicates ... Bay Ae 
Potash mae ‘08 
NO. 1702, VOL. 66 | 
NATURE 
[JUNE 12, 1902 
Also a trace of sulphides and a faint trace of sulphurous anhy- 
dride—a product of the combustion of sulphides and sulphur. 
The mineralogical examination by Dr. Longfield Smith gave 
the following as the results of the sieve analysis :— 
Diameter of particles. Percentage. 
I to ‘5 millimetre... SaeeOlOL 
5 ” 35 ” woe 3°06 
°35 1» °20 ” aa he 7°21 
Cefa) An od nH 66°20 
Bini, 0 a 0°89 
‘loand less’ ,, 22°63 
The particles from “5 to *35 mm. diameter were wholly com- 
posed of volcanic glass crowded with gas inclusions and contain- 
ing small lath-shaped crystals of felspar. The gas inclusions in 
many instances were so numerous as to render the particles 
quite opaque. The particles of *35 to *2 mm. were of similar 
volcanic glass and partly of crystals of felspar. Those of ‘2 to 
“I mm. were almost entirely composed of mineral crystals, 
consisting chiefly of lime and soda felspar and of a ferro- 
magneésian mineral not yet definitely determined. They also 
contained a quantity of magnetite and a very few crystals of a 
dark blue doubly-refracting mineral not yet determined. The 
particles finer than ‘1 mm. were chiefly composed of com- 
minuted fragments of felspar. 
A comparison of the dusts of 1812 and 1902 points to the 
recent eruption as being much the more violent, it being very 
rare to find so many mineral particles in volcanic dust scattered 
so far from the seat of eruption. The fact that particles of 
magnetite, a mineral of specific gravity 5°5 to 6’5, of more than 
I mm. diameter, should be found in the dust more than ninety 
miles from the seat of explosion is significant of the prodigious 
height to which the particles must have been ejected. 
The subjoined diary of events is in continuation of 
those already given. 
Diary of Events. 
June 4, Kingstown (St. Vincent).—Vessels leaving Martinique 
have experienced upheavals of the sea between that island and 
St. Lucia, indicating submarine eruptions. Clouds of steam, 
accompanied by flashes of flames at night, have been con- 
tinually rising from the Soufritre since May 16. ‘ 
June 4, Cornwall.—aA slight shock of earthquake was felt in 
the neighbourhood of Camborne about ro.20 p.m. It was ac- 
companied bya low rumbling noise.. In some houses ornaments 
were shaken from the shelves on which they stood. 
June 4, Valparaiso.—According to a despatch from La Paz, 
a volcanic eruption has occurred in the Choicd (Chaco ?) 
territory, by which two villages were destroyed and seventy-five 
persons killed. 
~ June 4; Baku.—The journal Kasf7 reports an eruption of the 
mud volcano in the -neighbourhood of the village of IKobi, 
district of Baku. The eruption, which lasted about five 
minutes, was accompanied by a detonation resembling the 
report of cannon, and the country around for some distance was 
enveloped in flames. : 
June 4, Rome.—A slight earthquake shock was felt last 
evening at Velletri, twenty miles south-east of Rome. No 
damage was done. 
June 6, Melbourne.—A slight earthquake shock was experi- 
enced in South Australia to-day. 
June 6, Seattle. —The steamer Berthaw, which has arrived 
from Alaska, brings advices to the effect that the volcanic 
mountains Redoubt, Llanna and Augustine at Cook’s inlet have 
been smoking and giving, off steam. ior a month past. On 
May 26 Mount Redoubt threw up a quantity of ashes. 
June 6, Fort de France.—Another eruption of Mont Pelée 
touk: place to-day. A gigantic cloud extended to the south, 
covering Fort de France with darkness, but no ashes fell. The 
sea here receded for several feet, and did not return for some 
lime. 
June 6, Kingstown (St. Vincent).—Simultaneous with an 
eruption of Mont Pelée, the Soufriére in St. Vincent belched 
out a heavy cloud of smoke, and at 2 p.m. Kingstown was 
wrapped in pitch darkness. 
June 7, Fort de France.—A terrible eruption took place. 
Fort de France was in darkness from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. 
The plains of the Morne Rouge were covered with hot mud. 
June 7, Hawazti,—The volcano Mauna Loa has become 
active. 
