256 The National Geographic Magazine 



sulphureted hydrogen gases. Nearly 

 all the old calderas contain native sul- 

 phur. The soufriere of Pelee receives 

 its name from the sulphur found there. 

 Parties who visited the summit a few 

 days before the catastrophe, as recorded 

 in L' Colon ie, exposed silver and it was 

 blackened. They noted black powder, 

 resembling plumbago, covered trees near 

 the crater ; that the water of the lake 

 contained great quantities of sulphu- 

 reted hydrogen, and that when the water 

 was put in bottles the gases forced out 

 the corks. 



The deputy mayor, L,abat, told me 

 that the captain of the Suchet picked up 

 pieces of pure sulphur in the ruined 

 streets of St Pierre on the afternoon of 

 the catastrophe. A newspaper man de- 

 scribes splotches of flame on the ships, 

 which might have been sulphur. 



The city of St Pierre was filled with 

 sulphureted smells for days before the 

 eruption, as testified by the following 

 extract from a letter by Mrs Prentiss, 

 written and mailed a few days before 

 her untimely death : ' ' The smell of sul- 

 phur is so strong that horses on the 

 street stop and snort, and some of them 

 drop in their harness and die from 

 suffocation. Many of the people are 

 obliged to wear wet handkerchiefs to 

 protect them from the strong fumes of 

 sulphur. ' ' 



A survivor named McDonald, who 

 arrived in Norfolk, Virginia, on May 16, 

 claims to have escaped from St Pierre 

 to a ship in a rowboat, and that he was 

 picked up by the Sachet. He said the 

 air was filled with mud and lava, and 

 the sulphur fumes were so strong that 

 breathing was difficult. 



Deputy Mayor Labat said that when 

 he approached St Pierre on the evening 

 of the explosion there was a terrific odor 

 of sulphur in the air. I myself have 

 smelled sulphur fumes in the air from 

 later eruptions. 



Foreman Evans said there was a little 

 sulphur smell, but the smell was like 



something dry, like steam with a little 

 sulphur. 



Evidence of Steam. — Steam clouds 

 were seen by Father Alte Roche, rising 

 from the erupted clouds. Steam may 

 be inferred, as it was present in all the 

 eruptions subsequently seen. The burn- 

 ing of persons' bodies through their 

 clothing without firing the clothing in- 

 dicates the presence of steam, and the 

 great rain of wet mud which followed 

 the catastrophe from a cloudless sky, 

 might theoreticallj' be assigned to the 

 condensation of steam ejected from the 

 volcano. 



Force. — A tremendous destructional 

 force was apparent. It uprooted trees, 

 destroyed buildings, threw people and 

 objects, made the sea recede, overturned 

 ships and destroyed their rigging. It 

 is impossible to conceive that this force 

 was initial from the volcanic vents, two 

 and a half and five miles distant. 



The Force Aerial, not Terrestrial. — 

 Tops of walls were thrown down, foun- 

 dations standing ; pedestal standing, 

 statue blown off ; rigging and upper 

 works blown off ships, hulls keeled over. 

 The stones on which the light-house 

 stood were torn asunder and thrown 

 great distances. The statue of the 

 Virgin, as observed by Professor Rus- 

 sell on the lower cliff near the south 

 end of the city, was thrown to the 

 south, with her head lying to the north. 

 Many of the trees in the south edge of 

 the town were thrown south against 

 the cliff, although others in the town 

 were sufficiently rooted to withstand 

 the forces. Against the cliff in the 

 southern part of the town are hundreds 

 of tin roofs. On the cliff line above 

 the town many trees are still standing 

 with their branches and scorched foli- 

 age, and a red-roofed villa preserved 

 there, with furniture and foliage intact, 

 shows that the lines of fire did not 

 reach there. Mr. Prudhomme, on the 

 bark Teresa lo Vico, was thrown on deck, 

 his wife on top of him. 



