St. Vincent, and Mt. Pelee^ Martinique. 321 



the exception of Mr. F. W. Griffith, of Kins^stown, no one 

 seems to have connected them witli an impending eruption of 

 the Souf riere. In December of that year, however, the people 

 living on the western slopes of the volcano began to feel 

 anxions on account of the subterranean noises heard occa- 

 sionally. By February, 1902, the rumblings had become so 

 frequent that the inhabitants were very uneasy and began to 

 leave the district, so that but one person was left within the 

 fated area when the great eruption of May T occurred. The 

 rumblings were less distinctly heard on the eastern or wind- 

 ward side of the island, and the warnings were not heeded so 

 generally, because it was- supposed that the prevailing winds 

 would carry to westward any ejecta from the crater, in case of 

 an eruption. The loss of life was confined to the windward 

 side of St. Yincent. 



The first ascent of the Soufriere, since the eruption of May 

 T, 1902, was made on Saturday, May 31, by Dr. T. A. Jaggar, 

 Jr., George Carroll Curtis, T. MacGregor MacDonald^ and 

 myself with six porters. We went up from the site of Walli- 

 bou village, on the leeward (west) side, following the remains 

 of the old trail to the rim of the crater at 2790 feet above the 

 sea, an elevation obtained by taking the mean of the readings 

 of three aneroid barometers. f We found the crater unchanged 

 in diameter, as nearlj^ as Mr. MacDonald could tell, and there- 

 fore 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 measurements made on the map. The beautiful crater 

 lake, for which the Soufriere was famous before the eruption, 

 had disappeared of course, but there was a small lake of boil- 

 ing water in the bottom of the pit, from the southeastern 

 quarter of which steam was ascending in a strong column. 

 See figs. 4 and 5, p. 351. :{: This column at intervals was carry- 

 ing 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 1600 feet below the point on 



*Mr. MacDonald is the owner, with his brother, of several estates on the 

 leeward side of St. Vincent. One of these was destroyed in the Mar erup- 

 tions, and three others suffered the loss of their growing crops through the 

 outburst of September 3. Mr. MacDonald had the presence of mind to 

 remain in one of his houses, the Richmond Vale estate, from which there 

 was an uninterrupted view of the upjDer portion of La Soufriere, and to take 

 notes in detail of what happened on May 7 up to the time of the great erup- 

 tion which took place at 3 p. m., when he fled for his life. His notes have 

 been published in full in the Kingstown Sentry of May 16, 1902, and in the 

 Century Magazine, vol. Ixiv. pp. G38-642, August, 1902. 



f All the altitudes recorded in this article were obtained by means of 

 aneroid barometers, except as otherwise stated in the text. 



X For convenience of printing, the views iliustrating this article have been 

 placed together on pp. 351 to 358. 



