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The National Geographic Magazine 



a suburb, also saw the mountain " ap- 

 parentfy open over an area of ioo to 

 200 meters at a point fully 1,000 meters 

 below the summit." 



Father Alte Roche, from the high 

 position of Monte Verte, 3^ kilometers 

 south of St Pierre, had a clear view of 

 the mountain, but not of the city or 

 lower vent. He saw a dense column 

 shoot up from the summit of the crater 

 like a column of smoke and steam, which 

 "spread out like the leaves of a palm 

 tree." 



Jean Marie Evans, in a valley of the 

 Raibaud estate, one mile southeast of 

 St Pierre, saw the cloud coming out of 

 the top of the mountain, and ran. He 

 said the cloud did not go up in the air 

 like smoke. "It went high, but not 

 like smoke," meaning that it was like a 

 ball or cauliflower, instead of columns. 



Mademoiselle Lavenaire, from her 

 father's estate, Beauvalon, 3?- 2 miles 

 northeast of Morne Rouge, and i)4 

 miles from the crater, saw a column of 

 black smoke issue from the summit of 

 the crater, which did not rise, but set- 

 tled down toward St Pierre. 



Composition of the Cloud. — Its visi- 

 ble composition was of a dense mass of 

 hot ash-like lapilli (ash), which every- 

 where filled the air. Besides this, gases 

 and superheated steam were apparently 

 present, as will be shown. A ton of 

 ashes was found in the officers' mess on 

 the Roraima. From 50 to 100 tons fell 

 upon the deck of the Roddam ; less than 

 a foot of ashes fell in all the eruptions 

 on the streets of St Pierre. These were 

 piled highest against the north wall. 



Density. — Thecloud, asseen approach- 

 ing from the sea, was dense, opaque, 

 and of a brownish black color. Its den- 

 sity was so great as to cause total dark- 

 ness of positions it enveloped. 



Weight. — The cloud was heavier than 

 the air. It traveled along the surface 

 of the earth's configuration instead of 

 ascending. Owing to this heaviness, 

 houses, estates, trees, and people on 



the higher cliffs above St Pierre were 

 spared, as well as the trees on the south- 

 western slope of the high summit of 

 area of Pelee. 



Motion. — The cloud advanced hori- 

 zontically through the air, following 

 the configuration at the minimum rate 

 of a mile a minute. Besides the pro- 

 gressive motion, its convolutions surged 

 and rolled. No witnesses could testify 

 positively to a revolving (cyclonic) mo- 

 tion. Some say that it rolled vertically. 

 The priest at Precheur stated that trees 

 fell circularly, but all the fallen trees at 

 that place lie in one direction. 



Direction. — The path of the cloud was 

 from east of north to west of south. 

 The area of its destruction is elsewhere 

 discussed. An interesting fact told by 

 Engineer Evans is that ' ' the cloud came 

 against the wind." I cannot interpret 

 this phenomenon. Was there a tremen- 

 dous indraft ? 



Heat. — The cloud was hot. All wit- 

 nesses spared testified to feeling its heat 

 even when be3'ond its margin. The 

 ashes were hot for hours on the Roddam, 

 and still warm when dug into by me 

 thirteen days after the eruption. The 

 lapilli falling upon the Roraima were 

 sufficiently hot to cause ignition of rope 

 and bedding, but not to ignite wood- 

 work or the pitch-pine timber on its for- 

 ward deck. 



Mile. Lavenaire, 7V2 miles northeast 

 of St Pierre, to the east of the amphi- 

 theater, felt a blast of hot air. Others 

 on the margin of the disaster testify to 

 the hot air. The writer has personally 

 felt the hot blasts of air from subsequent 

 eruptions. 



Steam. — In addition to the hot lapilli, 

 there was an invisibie heated substance 

 in the cloud which penetrated clothing 

 without firing it and burned the human 

 skin beneath, as attested by the burns 

 upon the back of Engineer Morris, the 

 breast of Nurse Clara, and others. It 

 is possible that this was superheated 

 steam. 



