204 GEORGE CARROLL CURTIS 



down the valleys into the sea." The transporting power of 

 such a flood is tremendous. Professor Angelo Heilprin says of 

 the flood of May 5 :^ 



" Hardly had the mid-day hour passed when the gates of the volcano 

 were drawn, and a flood of boiling mud was sent hurling down the mountain 

 side to be flung from it into the sea. In three minutes it had covered its 



three miles to the ocean It is needless to ask whence came the mud ; 



it could plainly be traced to the position of the Soufriere or Etang Sec." 



Dr. T. A. Jaggar writes :^ 



This crater [Pel^e] ends in a deep gulch west that extends down to the 



sea Apparently it was down this gulch that the mud flood came which 



overwhelmed the Guerin factory. 



M. Parel, Vicar General of Martinique, in his memorable 

 record of the beginning of the disturbances on Mount Pelee,^ 

 states : 



Since the morning [May 5] Riviere Blanche, which for some days had 

 been swelling to disquieting proportions, although there had been no rain, 



had assumed suddenly the aspect of a menacing and muddy torrent 



At the same time a moving column of vapor was seen in the high valley (see 



Fig. 2) that extends from the crater It was an avalanche of 



black mud, ejected by the crater, and swollen by successive discharges until 

 it became a rolling mountain, while it was breaking its way through the deep 

 gorge. The moment it approached the delta, its presence was betrayed by 

 the ascending vapors. 



This show of vapors indicates the presence of some steam- 

 generating factor, which was probably heated bowlders thrown 

 out of the crater with or previous to the erupted flood, and borne 

 down with it. 



These observations indicate that the "mud flows" must be 

 included with the primary volcanic phenomena of eruption as 

 well as with the secondary. 



VALLEY ERUPTIONS. 



Perhaps no phenomena observed in the recent West Indian 

 eruptions have led to more misinterpretation than the eruptions 

 which were observed within the confines of valleys and canyons. 



^Mt. Pelee and the Tragedy of Martinique, J. B. Lippincott Co. 

 ^Popular Science Monthly, August, 1902, p. 359. 

 'i Century Magazine, August, 1 902. 



