Volcanic Disturbances in West Indies 



2 s i 



The Ei up I ion. — All witnesses agree 

 that St Pierre was overwhelmed by a 

 cloud of aerial volcanic ejecta, which 

 traveled with great rapidity across from 

 the mountain over the city. 



It may be noted here that in all of 

 the many subsequent eruptions which 

 I personally witnessed, those from the 

 summit, especially when black in color 

 and of dense lapilli (ash clouds), boiled 

 out in great balloon or mushroom-shaped 

 clouds, with numerous rolling convolu- 

 tions, usually dissipating above, but 

 sometimes floating away in great hori- 

 zontal ribbons. Those from the lower 

 vent were wide columns of brownish 

 smoke, without convolutions, and trav- 

 eled along the ground surface to the sea. 



A Sequence of Eruptions. — According 

 to Charles Evans, the second engineer 

 of the Roraimn, who with another en- 



gineer ( killed) was looking at the moun- 

 tain from the deck, there were three 

 eruptions : First, there was a big puff 

 of smoke from the top of the mountain, 

 not accompanied by noise, which mush- 

 roomed and spread out. Then, after a 

 noticeable interval, there was a second 

 and larger eruption (the destructive 

 one) which did not come from the top of 

 the mountain , but from the side, and 

 which did not ascend, but rushed down 

 toward him and the city in two great 

 horizontal puffs. On seeing this, the 

 fatal eruption, Mr Evans ran down to 

 the engine-room from the deck. Re- 

 turning on deck, burned and suffering, 

 he saw a third and irrelevant eruption, 

 which took place in about five minutes 

 after the second one. Evans is positive 

 that the second blast destroyed the 

 town. Camille Houly, at Belle Oncle, 



Photo by Israel C. Russell 



Guns of Battery on Morne d' Orange Dismounted by the Blast {see page 273) 



