446 The National Geographic Magazine 



Richmond Vale, was an eyewitness of 

 the great eruption of May 7, and has 

 contributed most valuably to the knowl- 

 edge of the history of that outburst 

 through the careful notes which he kept 

 of the events of that memorable day, up 

 to the time, 1.55 p. m., when it seemed 

 extremely dangerous to remain longer at 

 his post of observation. He had an un- 

 obstructed view of the upper portion of 

 La Soufriere. Mr MacDonald's account 

 of the eruption of the principal day, 

 however, must be prefaced by an extract 

 from the notes of Mr Mathes, a German 

 from South America, who was visiting 

 at Chateaubelair and witnessed the erup- 

 tion. Mr Mathes says that the first out- 

 burst of steam from the crater took place 

 at 2.40 p. m., May 6, and that steam and 

 "smoke" clouds rose from the sum- 

 mit at intervals until 5.40 p. m., when 

 all was clear ; but at 6.05 o'clock there 

 was another outburst with a very thick 

 cloud of dust. According to Mr Mac- 

 Donald, such eruptions took place at 

 intervals of an hour and a half to two 

 hours throughout the night. By 10.30 

 of the morning of the 7th the outburst 

 had become continuous, the column of 

 steam rising to a height seven or eight 

 times the altitude of the mountain, or at 

 least 30,000 feet. The display of light- 

 ning about the column was constant and 

 impressive, being vivid in the extreme. 

 At 1 o'clock large stones could be 

 distinguished in the ascending clouds 

 of steam and dust. These seemed to 

 fall to windward. Tremendous roaring 

 mingled with the thunder and lightning 

 to produce terror in the minds of be- 

 holders. Just before 2 o'clock there 

 was a marked increase in the already 

 great activity, with great showers of 

 stones to windward, and "a terrific, 

 huge, reddish and purplish curtain" 

 advanced toward Mr MacDonald's 

 house, causing him to consider discre- 

 tion the better part of valor and to take 

 to a boat which he had in readiness for 

 the emergency. He and his boatmen 



thought that they would be over- 

 whelmed by the cloud, but they made 

 good their escape, though many stones 

 fell into their boat. 



From 2 o'clock onward of that ter- 

 rible Wednesday the volcano was en- 

 veloped in a dense cloud of dust and 

 steam, from which red-hot rocks fell in 

 torrents, and anything like continuous 

 and calm observation of phenomena was 

 out of the question. The present ap- 

 pearance of the mountain slopes corrob- 

 orates Mr MacDonald's observation that 

 most of the large stones fell to wind- 

 ward. Stones six inches, and perhaps 

 more, in diameter fell in Georgetown, 

 five and one-half miles in an air line 

 from the crater to the southeast. I ob- 

 served blocks two feet in diameter in 

 the material from this eruption four 

 miles from the crater, while on the ac- 

 tual slopes of the mountain such blocks 

 even four feet across are to be found. 

 On the leeward side the absence of 

 stones, especially near the crater, is re- 

 markable, but we found some as large 

 as one's head in the debris covering 

 Richmond village, four miles southwest 

 of the crater. 



The eruptions continued with abating 

 force for some days after the great out- 

 burst of May 7, but, after a few days of 

 quiet, the crater broke out again on 

 Sunday evening, May 18, and the erup- 

 tion was so violent that there was a 

 heavy shower of stones in Kingstown, 

 the capital of the island, which is about 

 twelve miles distant from the crater in 

 a straight line. This eruption was very 

 short-lived. 



The first ascent of La Soufriere since 

 the eruption of May 7, 1902, was made 

 on Saturday, May 31, by Messrs Jaggar, 

 Curtis, MacDonald, and myself, with six 

 porters. We went up from the site of 

 Wallibu village, on the leeward (west) 

 side, following the remains of the old 

 trail across Trespe Valley and along the 

 tops of ridges to the elevation of 1,500 

 feet above tide, where we came upon 



