452 



The National Geographic Magazine 



The bombs thrown out by La Sou- 

 friere are not as perfect in development 

 as those ejected by Mt Pelee, a differ- 

 ence that seems to be due to the greater 

 basicity of the St Vincent lavas. The 

 more basic rocks, having a lower melting 

 point, would be more nearly fused in the 

 throat of the volcano, or would remain 

 fluid for a longer time than the more 

 acid. Bread-crust bombs seem to be 

 confined to relatively acid lavas. They 

 are typically developed in the andesitic 

 ejecta of Vulcano and Mt Pele. The}' 

 are absent from the more easily fused 

 basaltic material thrown out by Vesu- 

 vius, Etna and the Hawaiian volcanoes. 



The area of devastation on St Vincent 

 is very large in proportion to the total 

 area of the island. After plotting that 

 of the May eruptions out carefully on 

 the British Admiralty chart and meas- 

 uring the area with a planimeter, I find 

 that it was 46 square miles, practically 

 one-third the entire area of the island. 

 From much of this devastated area, how- 

 ever, the ashes were being washed off so 

 rapidly by the rain that vegetation was 

 ahead}' asserting itself by June 10, the 

 date of my leaving St Vincent. The 

 tremendous eruption of September 3, 

 however, is reported to have extended 

 considerably the area of present ruin, 

 particularly on the leeward side of the 

 island. The cable dispatches state that 

 the estates of Richmond Vale, Sharp's, 

 Petit Bordel, Cull's (Swat's?) Hill, Tru- 

 maka, and Cumberland have lost all 

 their present cultivation and have lost 

 buildings through crushing, while a 

 private letter from William J. Durrant,of 

 Kingstown, informs the author that 

 much volcanic sand fell as far south as 

 Peter's Hope, five miles below Chateau- 

 belair. On the leeward side of the 

 island, therefore, the boundary line of 

 the zone of destruction probably now is 

 about two miles south of Chateaubelair. 

 The area on the windward side is re- 

 ported not to have been extended by 

 the September eruption. 



Extensive landslides have taken place 

 on the western side, removing a strip 

 of coast, in places one hundred yards 

 wide, continuously from the mouth of 

 the Wallibu River to Morne Ronde vil- 

 lage, a mile and a half to the north, and 

 at intervals for two miles farther north. 

 These landslides have left precipitous 

 walls along the shore line, and deep 

 water is found where villages stood and 

 prosperous plantations existed before 

 the eruption. We had no sounding line, 

 but our boatmen could not touch bot- 

 tom with a twelve-foot oar three feet 

 from shore on the site of Morne Ronde 

 village. The sections left by the slides 

 show that the land which has disap- 

 peared consisted of delta and coast-plain 

 deposits, material which would easily be 

 dislodged from the more substantial lava, 

 flows and agglomerate beds by the vi- 

 brations due to the eruptions. The east- 

 ern, or windward, side of the island is 

 not nearly as steep as the leeward, and 

 landslides have not occurred there as 

 features of this eruption. On the con- 

 trary, the windward shore line from 

 Black Point, a mile south of Georgetown, 

 northward almost to Chibarabou Point, 

 more than six miles distant, has been 

 pushed out by the vast quantities of 

 fresh lapilli which have been brought 

 down from the slopes of the volcano by 

 the rivers and the heavy rains during 

 and since the eruptions and distributed 

 by the ocean currents. When I was at 

 the locality, on May 27, I noticed that 

 the shoreline at the lauding jetty of the 

 Rabaka sugar works, a few rods north 

 of the mouth of the Rabaka Dry River, 

 had been extended half way to the outer 

 end of the jetty, a matter of 40 or 50 

 yards, by the black volcanic sand brought 

 down by the torrents. By June 5 the 

 point had been washed back nearly to 

 the old shore line again and the material 

 distributed along the coast, especially in 

 the little embayments. 



A large amount of material was 

 brought down bv the Rabaka Drv River 



