i2o The National Geographic Magazine 



and burned him. He heard no noise, 

 saw no fire, smelled nothing "except 

 what he thought was his own body 

 burning." There was no smoke, and 

 the hot air came in through the grating 

 without any appreciable rush or blast. 

 His clothing did not take fire, and yet 

 his back was very severely burned under 

 his shirt. 



An interesting phenomenon noted by 

 Mr Kennan was the stellar lightning 

 which characterized the night eruptions. 

 Several illustrations of this are given. 



The chapter on ' ' Causes of the Ca^ 

 tastrophe ' ' is worthy of a professional 

 geologist, something that Mr Kennan 

 does not profess to be. His belief is 

 ' ' that the volcanic discharge which de- 

 stroyed St Pierre came from a lateral 

 fissure near the summit of the moun- 

 tain ; that it did not contain any con- 

 siderable amount of gas ; that it did 

 not burst into flame, and that it did not 

 cause death b} r asphyxiation." The 

 death-dealing blast, according to Mr 

 Kennan, was composed of superheated 

 steam charged with fine dust. The 

 weight of the dust carried by the steam 

 depressed the blast so that it followed 

 the slope of the mountain. The dust 

 was hot enough to set fire to inflam- 

 mable objects inside the houses, which 

 did not catch fire from the outside, but 

 from the inside. 



The volume is graphical^- illustrated 

 from drawings by George Varian and 

 from photographs by the author. 



The American Cotton Industry. By 



T. M. Young. Pp. 146. 5 x 7^ 

 inches. London : Methuen & Co. 

 New York : Imported by Charles 

 Scribner's Sons. 1902. 75c. net. 

 The author in the spring and early 

 summer of 1902 visited the cotton-man- 

 ufacturing districts in New England 

 and in the Southern States. He had 

 been sent from England by the cotton 

 manufacturers of Manchester, who de- 

 sired a careful investigation and com- 

 parison of the cotton spinning and weav- 



ing industry in England and the United 

 States. It has been generally known 

 for some years that the American cot- 

 ton factories were outstripping those in 

 England. Mr Young, as a result of his 

 study, does not think the American 

 weaver is more intelligent or better paid 

 than the British weaver, but that our 

 advantage is ( 1 ) because American man- 

 agement is more economical of labor — ■ 

 that is, we do not divert a skilled man's 

 attention and time to the small things 

 which an unskilled man can do just as 

 well, and (2) because the American 

 manager is alert for the newest inven- 

 tion, and adopts even inventions made 

 in England before the English manager 

 considers them. 



Year-book of the Department of Agri- 

 culture, 1901. Edited by Geo. Wm, 

 Hill. With plates and maps. Pp. 

 846, 6yi x g% inches. Washington : 

 Government Printing Office, 1902. 

 The Year-book for 1901 teems with 

 important geographic material. The 

 report of the Secretary takes 115 pages, 

 and is folio ved by 33 articles on special 

 topics, of which the following may be 

 mentioned : 



"The Purpose of a Soil Survey." 

 Milton Whitney. 



' ' Insects as Carriers and Spreaders of 

 Disease." L. O. Howard. 



" The Future Demand for American 

 Cotton." J. L. Watkins. 



"The Timber Resources of Alaska." 

 Wm. L. Hall. 



' ' Progress in Plant and Animal Breed- 

 ing." Willet M. Hayes. 



' Agricultural Seeds — Where Grown, 

 How Handled." A. J. Pieters. 



" The Prairie Dog of the Great 

 Plains." C. Hart Merriam. 



"Grazing in the Forest Reserves." 

 Filibert Roth. 



"Agriculture in the Tropical Islands 

 of the United States." O. F. Cook. 



" Little-Known Fruit Varieties Con- 

 sidered Worthy of Wider Dissemina- 

 tion." Wm. A. Taylor. 



