WEST INDIAN VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS 205 



Persisting after the great eruptions from the summit craters, 

 they formed a source of intermittent anxiety to the inhabitants 

 left near the borders of devastation, and one of considerable 

 misinterpretation by the early explorers, who saw the volu- 

 minous outbursts only at a distance. 



From afar these eruptions appeared as occasional outbursts 

 of steam, whose snow-white bulging tops were sometimes 

 mingled with tints of brown or shaded with deeper grayish color; 

 "black mud" was reported to have issued from them; hence 

 the name of "mud craters" was applied by some to the sites of 

 these outbursts. Professor Angelo Heilprin, in his article, 

 "Mount Pelee in its Might,"' speaks of "vents of the Falisse 

 river acting as safety valves for Pelee." Professor Heilprin, in 

 an account of his second visit to Martinique,^ says : 



When my observations were made, I was not near enough to clearly 

 ascertain its features, and relied for my determination largely on the 

 observations of others. A closer examination of the gorge leads me to very 

 strongly doubt the crateral origin of the outbursts — a doubt which has 

 already been expressed by Lacroix and others. 



Mr, Robert T. Hill, in his report on the volcanic disturb- 

 ances in the West Indies ^ has prepared a map on which he 

 locates three "mud craters," each over a mile from the crater of 

 Pelee, and has located a "Soufriere crater" on the Riviere 

 Blanche half way between the summit and the sea. 



Of the hundreds of these eruptions from " lower craters" which 

 I saw during the forty-eight days on these islands, one which 

 occurred at the mouth of the Wallibou river, St. Vincent, on 

 May 30, and another in the Seche river on June 24, both wit- 

 nessed at close range, may serve as the basis of a description of 

 these phenomena. 



While passing the Wallibou river in a dug-out canoe on the 

 afternoon of May 30, a great cloud of vapor suddenly sprang 

 from the stream, accompanied by a cannon-like roar. The 

 column of steam rose to a height estimated at over 3,000 feet, 

 and passed from a straight geyser-like jet into a bulging top ten 



"^ McClure's, August, 1902. 



^Op. cit., p. 214. '^National Geographical Magazitte, July, 1902. 



