258 The National Geographic Magazine 



trees stand which were only singed of 

 their leaves and twigs. 



Duration. — The whole catastrophe, 

 from beginning to end, was over in less 

 than three minutes, although the ruins 

 are still burning. 



Succeeding Ra i?i of Mu d and Pit m ice . — 

 Immediately following the destruction 

 there was a rain of mud, or, as a negro 

 witness stated, wet met the ashes in the 

 sky, turned to mud, and it fell to the 

 ground. This mud plastered all objects 

 upon which it fell as with a thick coat- 

 ing of cement — houses, ships, and heads 

 of human beings. The landscape was 

 everywhere coated with an envelope of 

 this warm liquid from the sky. This 

 rain of mud continued for one-half hour 

 after the explosion. The rain of mud 

 is strongly suggestive of the condensa- 

 tion of the volcanic steam of the erup- 

 tion in the air as a source of the moist- 

 ure. H,S, ignited, moisture from the 

 combination of the H 2 with the 0, may 

 have theoretically also resulted. 



Accompanying the rain of mud was 

 a shower of pumice-stone. These stones 

 were undoubtedly those which had been 

 thrown higher into the air from the ex- 

 plosions than the other ejecta, and which 

 with a long trajectory came down last. 

 These stones or those of the eruptions, 

 falling on the soft plastering of the land- 

 scape, rolled down the hillsides, striping 

 the plaster with their parallel paths as 

 if it had been raked with a coarse comb. 



Death. — Death was an accompani- 

 ment of any of the phenomena of the 

 eruption described, and undoubtedly oc- 

 curred in many ways and in different 

 degrees of suddenness. Many were 

 killed by inhaling hot lapilli, notably 

 on the Roraima ; others burned by same 



on the Rod dam ; others burned by 

 steam ; others killed by force ; others 

 singed by flame. All did not die in- 

 stantly. 



Nearly all burns of the wounded sur- 

 vivors from the ship, according to Dr 

 Riley, were of the first degree, affecting 

 only the epidermis. There were also 

 some burns of the true skin. The eyes 

 of the wounded were unaffected and the 

 eyelashes intact ; on the other hand, 

 remains on shore were horribly burned 

 to the quick. 



Officer Scott, of the Roraima, tells of 

 children who moaned for water, ' ' un- 

 able to swallow because of ashes which 

 clogged their throats." "One rinsed 

 out his mouth, but could not swallow 

 on account of ashes which burned his 

 throat." 



It is not true that all the inhabitants 

 died from asphyxiation in the position 

 in which the cataclysm surprised them. 

 Many were found in positions indicating 

 flight and search of shelter. The cap- 

 tain of the Roddam told me he saw peo- 

 ple running about the water edge for 

 several minutes. In St Vincent it is 

 said that a man was found dead in the 

 act of twirling his mustache ; another 

 with his hand holding his pipe. An 

 eyewitness told me that he saw in St 

 Pierre a man holding a struggling, 

 frightened horse, both dead in this post- 

 ure. The man running the donkey on 

 the Roraima was killed instantly where 

 he was sitting ; he never moved. An- 

 other person, a foreman, was standing 

 by, holding the handle of the pump, 

 when killed ; and yet near by a child 

 and nurse were only burned, and recov- 

 ered. It is also stated a man who died 

 on the Roddam was burned internally. 



EXTENT AND PHENOMENA OF DEVASTATION 



The effect of the preceding eruptions 

 of May 3 and 5, and of the eruptions 

 which have taken place since the day of 



the great catastrophe, notably that of them 



May 20, all of which occurred within 

 the same general district, are so inter- 

 mingled that it is difficult to distinguish 



