Eruptions on Martinique and St Vincent 427 



other occurrence connected with the 

 eruption of Mont Pelee, unless it be in 

 reference to the secondary craters re- 

 ferred to above. Obviously many deaths 

 occurred in St Pierre from the bombard- 

 ment of missiles that swept through the 

 city, as just mentioned, from the falling 

 of walls and other objects, from the fire 

 that followed the volcanic blast, from 

 nervous shock, etc.; but opinions differ 

 as to the principal cause of the loss of 

 life. The opinions referred to fall in 

 two groups: a, those favoring the idea 

 that gases were the deadly agency, and, 

 b, those which refer the loss of life to the 

 effects of steam charged with hot dust. 

 a. Certain observers are strongly in- 

 clined to the opinion that Mont Pelee, or 

 more accurately, the " Riviere Blanche 

 subcrater," discharged gases which as- 

 phyxiated the inhabitants of St Pierre. 

 As to the nature of the supposed gases, 

 at least two suggestions have been 

 made — one that it was mainty sulphu- 

 reted hydrogen, and the other, carbon 

 dioxide or some similar gas. Coupled 

 with the first of these suggestions is 

 the further hypothesis that gas explo- 

 sions took place within the city and 

 added to the deadly effect of the as- 

 phyxiating gases. The hypothesis that 

 gases were the direct cause of the greater 

 part of the loss of life, as claimed at St 

 Pierre, has not, so far as I am aware, 

 been extended to St Vincent, but the 

 dead and the injured on the two islands 

 met their fate in precisely similar ways. 

 The evidence bearing on the question 

 under consideration has been judiciously 

 discussed by George Kennan, and the 

 testimony of the sole survivor of the dis- 

 aster of May 8 placed on record. Had 

 noxious gases, and especially such heavy 

 ones as carbon dioxide and sulphureted 

 hydrogen, been swept over the city in 

 sufficient quantities to kill nearly all the 

 inhabitants, it is evident that the occu- 

 pant of a cell below the level of the ad- 

 jacent street would have been in a most 

 dangerous position. The testimony of 



the prisoner referred to, as summarized 

 by Kennan, after a critical cross-exami- 

 nation, is that he " heard no explosions 

 or detonations; saw no flame; smelled 

 no sulphurous gas ; and had no feeling 

 of suffocation. He was simply burned 

 by hot air and hot ashes which came 

 into his cell through the door grating." 



It is impracticable to review in this 

 essay all the evidence which it is claimed 

 sustains the hypothesis of asphyxia- 

 tion by gases. This side of the discus- 

 sion, however, has been well presented 

 by R. T. Hill in the National Geo- 

 graphic Magazine, in the Cmturv 

 Magazine and in Collier's Weekly, and by 

 Angelo Heilprin in McClure' s Magazine 

 (see list at end of this essay). 



b. The efficiency of steam charged 

 with hot dust, or of either of these 

 agencies alone, to cause scalds, burns, 

 and even instantaneous death, is not 

 open to doubt. The question is, Was 

 the steam and hot dust swept over the 

 portions of Martinique and St Vincent 

 at the time so many thousand people 

 were killed the chief agency in their 

 destruction ? Cumulative evidence has 

 been added to the various classes of facts 

 presented by me in the July number of 

 this Magazine,* which sustains conclu- 

 sions then reached. I refer to the nar- 

 rative of George Kennan published in 

 The Outlook for August 16 ; the prelim- 

 inary report made by Tempest Anderson 

 and J. S. Flett to the Royal Society of 

 London,, and the preliminary report 

 made by E. O. Hovey to the American 



* It was impracticable for me to read the 

 proof of the article referred to, and in the titles 

 of some of the illustrations, especially, there 

 are serious errors. In the title of the plate 

 opposite page 27S, "Georgetown" should be 

 substituted for " Kingstown ; " the title of the 

 plate opposite page 2S2, should be "Valley of 

 Wallibu River deeply filled with hot debris;" 

 on page 284, the title of the illustration should 

 read " Summit of Jlorne d'Oranye, St Pierre." 

 The map on page 2S2 fails to show the area at 

 the north end of St Vincent, as indicated on 

 the original, which was not devastated, and is 

 much generalized in other ways — I. C. R. 



