188 REPORT— 1898. 



as they already are by these continual shocks, must in course of time be 

 thrown to the ground unless the earthquakes cease. 



The whole subject seems Avell deserving of scientific investigation. 

 The Government of the island is in a very bad financial state, and could 

 not afford any pecuniary aid to an investigation, though it would doubt- 

 less give as much encouragement as possible to the investigators ; but 

 probably in the interests of science your committee or some other scien- 

 tific society would bear the expense of making a scientific investigation 

 which would be most interesting to science in general. 



Official reports in connection with the recent earthquakes have 

 doubtless been sent to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and I 

 would suggest your communicating with the Colonial Office in considering 

 the question ; but if your Society cannot send out a scientist I should be 

 glad if the substance of this letter could be published in the English 

 newspapers, and perhaps some scientist would take the matter up. 



I am, dear Sir, yours faithfully, 



H. DE CouRCY Hamilton, 

 Fellow of the Royal Colonial Institute. 



John Milxe, Esq., Secretary, Seismological Investigation Committee, London. 



Extract from Letter of Joseph Stlirge, Esq.. Wheeley's Road, Birmingham, 



dated February 3,' 1898. 



' I think you maj' be glad to know of a somewhat curious phenomenon 

 that has taken place in a small island in the West Indies, Montserrat, 

 with which I am connected. 



' The island is the tip of a submarine mountain : it is 12 miles long by 

 7 wide, and 3,000 feet high. The sea is 2,000 fathoms deep all round 

 the island. There are sulphureous springs of hot water which emit 

 vapour, but no more active volcanic action, and for forty years there have 

 been no serious earthquakes and very few noticeable ones. 



'On November 29, 1896, there was an extraordinary rain-storm, 20 

 inches of rain falling in the centre of the island in about twelve hours. 

 Since that time the island has been subject to constantly recurring slight 

 shocks of earthquake. They come almost every day, and sometimes 

 several in a day. They do not do much harm, but keep people more or 

 less in a state of alarm, and the curious problem is what happened on the 

 day of the rain-storm that set the earthquakes going. 



' The sulphur springs have emitted a much more copious volume of gas 

 since the change, so that silver now goes black three miles ofl'. 



' It may be worth while to mention that in 1880 there was a similar 

 flood in the neighbouring island of St. Kitts, and that tlie same night 

 there was a volcanic disturbance in Dominica (150 miles from St. Kitts), 

 and a boiling lake came into existence among the mountains there.' 



On April 15 Mr. Sturge writes that the earthquakes increased in 

 frequency and violence until the end of February. Almost all stone 

 buildings were more or less injured. Since then there has been a great 

 drought, coincidently with wliich the shocks ha\'e almost entirely ceased. 

 Is this a in'O'pter hoc or only a yost hoc 1 



