Volcanic Disturbances in West Indies 275 



volcano; but what is significant is that 

 the people of St Vincent heeded the 

 warnings given by their troubled moun- 

 tain and many lives were saved which 

 otherwise no doubt would have been 

 lost. 



The destruction on St Vincent was 

 due to dust, lapilli, and stones, which 

 fell on the land while yet hot; but a 

 hurricane blast of steam charged with 

 burning dust did not sweep down from 

 La Soufriere as it did from Mont Pelee. 

 The area on which the dust and stones 

 fell while yet sufficiently hot to destroy 

 the vegetation was about twice as great 

 as 011 Martinique, and extends in a belt 

 some six miles wide across the northern 

 end of the island, leaving, however, a 

 narrow strip of verdure on the extreme 

 northeast coast, as is shown on an ac- 

 companying map. 



The Dixie reached Georgetown, the 

 capital of St Vincent, on the morning 

 of May 23, and later the same day, 

 through the courtesy of Mr F.W. Grif- 

 fith, who had immediate charge of the 

 distribution of the relief stores for the 

 colonial government, I was enabled to 

 make a trip on the steamer Wear north- 

 ward along the west shore of the island 

 to the devastated region about La Sou- 

 friere. A similar and more successful 

 trip on the same boat was made the foh 

 lowing day, during which a landing was 

 effected at the mouth of Wallibu River 

 and the country about Richmond House 

 carefully examined. 



While proceeding northward on the 

 Wear, calls were made at the villages on 

 the shore, where people driven from the 

 devastated district had taken refuge, 

 and an opportunity was afforded of see- 

 ing the stores brought from the LInited 

 States actually placed in the hands of 

 those to whom they had been sent. A 

 similar gratifying sight was again seen 

 a few clays later at Georgetown, on the 

 east coast of St Vincent. 



On landing at the mouth of Wallibu 

 River we saw before us a scene fullv as 



desolate as at St Pierre. Near the shore, 

 where a village of some 400 or 500 people 

 stood on the morning of the 7th of Ma} r , 

 we walked over the barren, wind-rip- 

 pled, and rill-cut surface of a fresh de- 

 posit of volcanic dust and stones some 

 50 or 60 feet deep. This village, as in 

 the case of the northern portion of St 

 Pierre, was situated at the margin of a 

 broad sloping upland, from which the 

 debris was swept and piled deeply on 

 the flat land to leeward. After inspect- 

 ing Richmond House, a strongly built 

 structure of stone, the partial ruin of 

 which resulting from a hurricane a few 

 years since had been completed by the 

 recent eruption, I pressed on, in com- 

 pany with Dr Hovey and Mr T. M. 

 McDonald — the latter the owner of 

 neighboring estates and one of them 

 now buried beneath the desolate cover- 

 ing of stones — to the bluff overlooking 

 Wallibu River, and had an unobstructed 

 view of the deeply filled valle)' of that 

 stream and of the slopes of La Soufriere, 

 even to its still steaming summit. Never 

 have I gazed on a stranger or more in- 

 structive scene. We had caught Nature 

 at work at one of her most marvelous 

 tasks. On the slopes about us still 

 stood the denuded trunks of palms, their 

 sides facing the volcano stripped of their 

 bark and scorched, showing that the 

 wind during the storm of hot dust and 

 stones had blown from the direction of 

 the volcano, but not with the extreme 

 violence so manifest at St Pierre. The 

 hills about us were covered to the depth 

 of three to four feet with dust and 

 stones, then cold, and compacted so that 

 we could walk over the surface of the 

 layer without difficult}'. One of the 

 many interesting features to claim at- 

 tention was the wonderful manner in 

 which the layer of fresh debris had been 

 cut by the rills originating on it from 

 the recent heavy rains. A most beauti- 

 ful system of dendritic drainage was 

 there in active development. The rills 

 and brooks had in many instances cut 



