Eruptions on Martinique and St Vincent 425 



Boys Carrying Water to Refugee Camp, 



Georgetown, St Vincent, 



May 27, 1902 



bombs answering this description have 

 as yet been reported as occurring on 

 Martinique or St Vincent. The near- 

 est approach to a characteristic bomb 

 are certain rudely spherical masses of 

 lava with cracked surfaces and without 

 projections or indications of a spiral 

 twist. Evidently these poorly shaped 

 bombs are composed of fresh lava which 

 was sufficiently hot to make it some- 

 what plastic at the time it was blown 

 into the air, but was too rigid to acquire 

 the typical shape frequently to be seen 

 in large numbers of bombs about cer- 

 tain basaltic craters. 



The absence of characteristic bombs 

 on Martinique and St Vincent is in 

 keeping with the composition of the 

 lava thrown out. The fresh lava 

 is an andesite having in a gen- 

 eral way the composition of a refrac- 

 tory brick, and unless very highly 

 heated would not be plastic. The dark 

 color of the columns of steam rolling 

 up from the craters when in violent 

 eruption and the vast quantities of 

 fragmental material showered on the 

 adjacent land and sea is evidence that 

 as molten rock was forced up the vol- 

 canic conduits it became cooled and 

 stiffened before reaching the summits of 

 the volcanoes, and was shattered by 



steam explosions and the fragments 

 blown into the air. Not only are true 

 volcanic bombs absent, but clots and 

 splashes of plastic or fluid rocks, such 

 as are common about many volcanoes 

 that have erupted easily fusible material, 

 are also lacking. 



The fragments ejected were in many 

 instances blown to a height of many 

 thousands of feet, the finer lapilli and 

 dust being carried perhaps five or six 

 miles high, and on falling were distrib- 

 uted in part through the influence of the 

 winds, in a general way in reference to 

 size and weight. The larger and heavier 

 masses fell near the craters from which 

 they were projected, while much of 

 the finer and lighter material was car- 

 ried great distances. Variations in the 

 method of distribution were caused by 

 the direction of the hurricane-like blasts 

 which swept down from both Mont 

 Pelee and L,a Soufriere during their 

 mightier eruptions, by the direction of 

 the trade winds and upper air currents, 

 and by tornado-like swirls in the greatly 

 disturbed atmosphere. The vastness of 

 the area on which the ejected material 

 fell is indicated by the fall of dust on 

 Barbados, Trinidad, and on ships 275 

 miles southeast of St Vincent. 



Observations reported by E. O. Hovey . 

 show that, contrary to earlier accounts, 

 written in part by myself , coarse material 

 fell in St Pierre. The riddling of boiler 

 plates one-fourth inch thick, in the 

 northern portion of the stricken city, by 

 stone shot against them from Mont 

 Pelee, is evidence that the hurricanes of 

 steam charged with hot dust, which 

 swept down from that volcano on May 8 

 or May 20, and perhaps during later 

 eruptions, were accompanied by a bom- 

 bardment of stones, no doubt hot, which 

 were as deadly as solid shot fired from 

 a cannon. 



Causes of Death. — Respecting the gen- 

 eral cause of death in St Pierre, the re- 

 ports of various observers differ more 

 widely than in connection with anv 



