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The National Geographic Magazine 



it was clear that no radical change in 

 this phase of the topograph}- had re- 

 sulted from the eruptions. 



At 1,500 feet above the sea we en- 

 countered slopes coated with soft mud, 

 which usually was from six inches to 

 two feet deep, but which sometimes 

 seemed to be much deeper. This feature 

 prevailed up to the rim of the crater 

 and made travel very laborious. Water 

 soaking into the mass of fine dust had 

 formed this soft mud, and it would not 

 have taken a great additional supply of 

 moisture to turn the mixture into a fluid 

 mass which would rush down the moun- 

 tain and out to sea as a " mud-flow." 



We had started from the ruins of the 

 Wallibu sugar works at 7.30 in the 

 morning, and at 9.49 Mr Curtis stood 

 upon the crater rim of L,a Soufriere, Dr 

 Jaggar, Mr MacDonald and I following 

 some minutes later. Our elevation was 

 determined to be 2,790 feet above the 

 sea by taking the average of the read- 

 ings of our three aneroid barometers. 

 We found the crater probably unchanged 

 in diameter, as nearly as Mr MacDonald 

 could tell, and therefore to be about 

 nine-tenths of a mile in diameter from 

 east to west and eight-tenths of a mile 

 from north to south, judging from meas- 

 urements made on the map. The beau- 

 tiful crater lake had disappeared, of 

 course, but there was a small lake of 

 boiling water in the bottom of the pit, 

 from the southeastern quarter of which 

 steam was ascending in a strong column. 

 This column at intervals was carrying 

 up quantities of black sand with it to 

 moderate heights above the bottom of 

 the crater. We estimated the surface 

 of the boiling lake to be about 1,600 feet 

 below the point on which we were stand- 

 ing and 2,400 feet below the highest 

 point of the rim, which was on the north- 

 eastern side. The lake seemed to be 

 shallow, judging from some nearly flat 

 ground in the bottom of the crater north- 

 east of the water. Our estimate would 

 indicate that the surface of the water 



was 1,200 feet above the sea, or 730 feet 

 lower than the surface of the old lake. 



Almost directly opposite the point 

 where we first reached the rim was the 

 wall and saddle, between the "Old" 

 crater and the crater of 18 12, apparently 

 unbroken by the eruption. From the 

 lower third of this series of nearly ver- 

 tical rock faces and agglomerate beds 

 there issued a strong stream of water 

 which cascaded down the precipices and 

 flowed across a rather narrow strip of 

 nearly level ground in the bottom of the 

 crater and emptied into the boiiiug lake. 

 It seemed as if this stream must be the 

 discharge of the waters now collecting 

 in the crater of 18 12, where there was a 

 little lake before the eruption of the 

 present year. Tremendous avalanches 

 of rocks and earth descended the inner 

 precipitous slopes of the crater at inter- 

 vals during our stay on the rim. They 

 made a great deal of noise, and may 

 have occasioned some of the ' ' groan- 

 ing ' ' of the volcano reported by the 

 islanders. 



The rim of the crater seemed to be 

 formed all the way round of tuff ag- 

 glomerate some scores of feet in thick- 

 ness and sloping inward at an angle of 

 about 30 . The elevation of the crest va- 

 ried from 2,600 feet to 3,623 feet, accord- 

 ing to the chart. Below this bed began a 

 series of beds of solid lava alternating 

 with beds of tuff. Through this portion 

 of the mountain the walls of the crater 

 seemed to be nearly, if not quite, ver- 

 tical. The beds of lava showed fine 

 columnar structure perpendicular to the 

 surfaces of cooling, and a dike, perhaps 

 fort}' feet wide, cutting all the series 

 from the bottom of the crater up to a 

 lava bed at 3,000 feet altitude on the 

 north side of the vast pit, showed well- 

 developed horizontal columns. The 

 relative positions of beds and columns 

 on the east side of the pit showed that 

 after the great cone had been built up 

 to an elevation of about 2,500 feet an 

 eruption took place which breached the 



