Geology and NatiiraJj History. 7.3 



flames, due to the oxy-hydrogen gas explosions, which must have 

 penetrated to the interior of all buildings, scorching and burning 

 everything within reach, while the force of the explosions, 

 analagous to that of dynamite, was suificient to demolish the 

 strongest stone buildings, tear the branches from the trees and 

 rend their trunks, dismount large cannon and transport them 

 some distance, and produce scenes of indescribable ruin of all life 

 and property, as is well shown in recent photographs. Probably 

 there were several of these explosive outbursts, following in rapid 

 succession, thouo-h a sin He one mig-ht have destroved all life in 

 St. Pierre. 



The recent reports of Mr. George Kennan and of Professor 

 Heilprin, who seem to have been the first to visit the new crater 

 which destroyed St. Pierre, show that this crater is an oblique 

 pit on the side of the mountain, facing St. Pierre, and with 

 several tunnel-like openings in the perpendicular wall, pointing 

 directly toward the city. Therefore, when the great eruption 

 took place, the vast jets of explosive gases were ejected hori- 

 zontally toward St. Pierre, which was thus swept by a " tornado of 

 fire," as if it had been in the focus of an enormous blowpipe flame. 



The burning gases and the very hot steam, resulting from this 

 explosion, instantaneously spread out on all sides, far beyond the 

 focus of the explosion, causing a wide zone of scorching and 

 burning, but without the total destruction seen in St. Pierre 

 itself. These hot and flaming gases caused the sudden burning 

 of the upper works of the vessels and great loss of life, lar 

 beyond the limits of the more violent explosive action. 



The explosive gases and flames evidently reached St. Pierre 

 sooner than the cinders and stones thrown out by the same out- 

 burst of gases, but the oblique direction of the mouth of the 

 crater was such as to produce a regular bombardment with hot 

 missiles of this kind, which added to the destruction of the build- 

 ings and to the debris in the streets. 



That the woodwork left on some of the buildings and the heaps 

 of broken timber and trees in the streets were not burned up, 

 was probably due to the heavy fall of rain that immediately fol- 

 lowed the eruption, caused by the condensation of the steam in 

 the upper regions of the atmosphere. 



Professor K. T. Hill, who reached Morne Rouge and witnessed 

 a late eruption (May 26) of Mt. Pelee from there, saw horizontal 

 flashes of light in the midst of the vast column of steam and 

 cinders emitted. These lightning-like flashes he attributed, no 

 doubt correctly, to explosive gases. They were evidently due to 

 the oxy-hydrogen gases, at that time greatly diluted with steam 

 in the column of cinders, etc. 



Had the openings of the new crater been directed vertically 

 upward, as is usually the case, the loss of life and property 

 would have been comparatively small, because the destructive 

 energy would have been expended in the upper regions of the air. 



This eruption, though of small volume, is of great scientific 



