ERUPTION OF TAAL VOLCANO. 83 



this eruption of Taal in the exact words applied by Hovey ^^ to the erup- 

 tions of La Soufriere and Mont Pelee in 1903. 



"It is evident that there was a blast or a series of blasts of hurricane violence 

 from the crater * * * as a feature of the eruptions * * *. The over- 

 turned trees constitute the principal evidence • * ». They all point away 

 from the crater except for slight modifications due to local topography. The 

 blast extended radially in all directions from the crater suggesting the explanation 

 that some great volume of steam, rising from the throat of the volcano could 

 not find room for expansion upward on account of the column of steam and 

 ashes which had preceded it and the ashes falling therefrom and that it expanded 

 with explosive violence horizontally and downward, following the configuration 

 of the mountain." 



" Eruptions of 1902 of La Soufri&re, St. Vincent, and Mont Pel6e, Martinique. 

 Am. Journ. Sci. (1902), 14, 326. 



