Volcanic Disturbances in West Indies 255 



G. Mazot, in & Colonic of May 5, 

 stated, in describing the current erup- 

 tions, that " flashes of lightning in cul- 

 minating zigzags moved the length of 

 the mountain. This phenomena is pro- 

 duced during the night with a beautiful 

 horror. The sparks shoot along the ■ 

 summit in every direction." Foreman 

 Jean Marie Evans distinctly and volun- 

 tarily testified to me that there was much 

 lightning on the St Pierre side during 

 the eruption. Father Alte Roche saw 

 lightning playing incessantly through 

 the summit cloud preceding the catas- 

 trophe. 



Scarcity of Visible Effects of Lightning 

 Strokes. — There is no positive evidence 

 of death or destruction from lightning, 

 nor is there sufficient data to say that 

 there were no such effects. No fulgurites 

 were found, no splintered trees, no shat- 

 tering. The ironwork was bent by 

 combustion heat of the burning city. 

 I saw hundreds of commercial bars of 

 iron standing against the walls of a shop, 

 which were unfused and unhurt. No 

 fusion whatever of metals was observed. 

 The onty apparent electrical phenom- 

 enon reported is the allegation that Mr 

 Clerc found that the iron cross which 

 formerly surmounted Morne La Croix 

 had been melted down to its stone 

 pedestal. * 



M. de Blowitzsays that the telegraph 

 office and its contents were burned, and 

 that some fragments of the apparatus 

 were thrown a hundred yards. The 

 office might have been burned by elec- 

 tricity, but the throwing was not due 

 to this cause. 



The correspondent of the Sun of May 

 13 says that the bodies looked as though 

 they had been struck by lightning; but 

 this is not proven. 



Important electric studies are being 

 made by officials of the French fleet in 



*The World's Work for July, received since 

 the foregoing W as written, states that Pro- 

 fessor Heilprin has found evidences of light- 

 ning strokes on objects in the city. 



the vicinity. It is an interesting coin- 

 cidence that the marconigraphs on 

 L' Tage were made useless during sub- 

 sequent eruptions. 



Magnetic Storm Probably Accompanied 

 Phenomena. — Mr Otto H. Tittmann, 

 Superintendent of the U. S. Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey, reports that the deli- 

 cately suspended magnetic needles at 

 the two Coast and Geodetic Survey 

 magnetic observatories — the one situ- 

 ated at Cheltenham, Md., 16 miles 

 southeast of Washington, and the other 

 at Baldwin, Kans., 17 miles south of 

 Lawrence — were disturbed, beginning 

 at about the time the catastrophe at 

 St Pierre is reported to have occurred. 

 The wave of fire struck St Pierre and 

 a clock was stopped at 7.50." The mag- 

 netic disturbance began at the Chel- 

 tenham Observatory at a time corre- 

 sponding to 7.53, St Pierre local mean 

 time, and at the Baldwin Observatory 

 7.55, St Pierre time. This disturbance 

 was also registered in Paris and in the 

 Hawaiian Islands. 



Evidence of Gaseous Substances within 

 the Cloud. — There is no direct oral testi- 

 mony of gas within the cloud, as the 

 people who witnessed it were not stu- 

 dents of gaseous phenomena. All sil- 

 verware in the ruins was blackened, 

 notably the bucket of plate rescued 

 from Consul Prentiss' house by Consul 

 Louis H. Ayme, which resembled old 

 black junk. A silver platter picked up 

 by an officer of the Dixie was black 

 and corrugated. A bronze, silver, and 

 gold image picked up by another officer 

 was likewise blackened. In fact, every 

 metal relic susceptible to sulphur dis- 

 coloration showed its blackening effect. 

 Twigs from the trees collected by me 

 and analyzed by Dr Steiger, of the Geo- 

 logical Survey, showed a sulphurous 

 coating. 



The presence of sulphur gases may 

 be reasonably inferred. The soufrieres 

 and most of the hot waters of the Car- 

 ibbee craters are sulphurous and evict 



