IVEST INDIAN VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS 



203 



unconsolidated cover 

 over the bed-rock 

 into a liquid-like tor- 

 rent moving with 

 great rapidity, and 

 maintaining thisstate 

 for several miles from 

 its assumed source, 

 especially since the 

 remarkably porous 

 quality of the "ash" 

 cover renders it a 

 very poor water- 

 bearing medium. 

 Some of the small, 

 viscous-flowing mud 

 streams originated in 

 the cutting down of 

 landslide dams be- 

 hind which stream 

 water had accumula- 

 ted, as we observed 

 on St. Vincent, but it 

 is difficult to con- 

 ceive how in the nar- 

 row, steep, graded 

 canyons, large bodies 

 of water could be 

 collected sufficient to 

 have caused the 

 greater flows. Drs. 

 Anderson and Flett' 

 state that the " crater 

 lake of La Soufriere 

 was probably driven 

 down over the lip of 

 the crater and poured 



'^ Proc. Royal Soc, Vol. XX, p. 426. 



