I'liutu !)> Cliaikb .Mai tin 
STUMPS OF TRKES ON VOIvCANO ISLAND 
The trees were torn off by the blast from the crater. Note that the bark is cut to pieces but 
not burned (see page 355) 
fallen in any considerable quantity. Suf- 
focation was undoubtedly also an impor- 
tant cause of death. 
There is strong evidence that there 
were a number of extremely local explo- 
sions, confined to single houses or to 
individual rooms in houses, which were 
apparently caused by the ignition of ex- 
plosive gases from the volcano. The 
victims of such explosions may well have 
been burned by fire. 
Red Cross funds and other relief 
funds were speedily made available, and 
food and shelter were immediately pro- 
vided for the destitute and the homeless. 
Work was provided for the able-bodied 
by the inauguration of road construction 
in the vicinity. 
A distressing feature of this calamity 
was that crops and grasses were killed 
over immense areas within which no 
other very serious damage was done, 
with the result that a large number of 
domestic animals starved to death. 
There was at the outset a woeful lack 
of appreciation of the magnitude of the 
calamity, due in part to the causes al- 
ready mentioned, and in part to the fact 
that such really authentic statements as 
were at first made relative to the havoc 
wrought were rather heavily discounted, 
both by the Manila public and by gov- 
ernment officials, accustomed as they all 
were to greatly exaggerated first reports 
of the damage caused in the Philippine 
Islands by typhoons, conflagrations, and 
earthquakes. 
Undoubtedly a limited number of 
wounded persons, whose lives might have 
been saved by quicker action, perished 
miserably ; but on the whole the relief 
work was efficient, in view of the great 
obstacle encountered in the lack of water 
transportation, a lack which should never 
353 
