St. Yincent, and Mt. Pelee^ Martinique. 329 



devastated district along the windward coast were all stripped 

 of their ^lass. 



An official's estimate of the loss of life on St. Yincent by 

 the eruption places the number of killed at 1350. The actual 

 number of bodies buried was 1298, including those of the 

 wounded who died in the hospitals. Almost all of the people 

 who passed through the fury of the eruption and escaped 

 uninjured had taken refuge in cellars the only openings into 

 which were on the side farthest from the crater and were, 

 moreover, tightly closed with wooden doors or shutters. The 

 most striking example of such protection was at Orange Hill, 

 on the windward coast, two and one-half miles north of George- 

 town, where one hundred and thirty two persons were saved 

 unharmed in an empty rum cellar. This cellar, which is only 

 partly underground, is part of a sugar factory situated on a 

 rather flat divide between two ravines which may have tended 

 to separate the volcanic storm somewhat, though the roof of 

 the building over the cellar was demolished by the ejecta. The 

 only openings into the cellar were a door and two windows on 

 the side opposite the crater, and these were provided with 

 heavy wooden shutters which were kept closed during the fury 

 of the eruption. The experiences of the people in these cel- 

 lars suggest the great desirability of constructing similar places 

 of refnge for use in time of hurricane as well as of volcanic 

 eruption. 



The deaths on St. Yincent seem to have been due, princi- 

 pally, to the following causes : (1) asphyxiation by hot, dust- 

 laden steam and air, (2) burns due to hot stones, lapilli and 

 dust, (3) blows by falling stones, (4) nervous shock, (5) burn- 

 ing by steam alone, and (6) strokes of lightning. The last 

 mentioned cause is perhaps somewhat doubtful, for though it 

 is very generally named by the survivors, there has been no 

 substantiation mentioned beyond the fact that there was a 

 great deal of extremely vivid lightning during the eruption. 

 The action of steam would account for burns received under- 

 neath the clothing where the clothing was not even charred. 

 Sulphur dioxide, SO^, and hydrogen sulphide, H2S, were 

 observed in troublesome quantities in the steam coming from 

 the crater, and it is more than probable that these gases, espe- 

 cially the former, added very materially to the deadly char- 

 acter of the dust-laden steam. Not an autopsy was made on 

 any of the hundreds of victims of the catastrophe, so that it 

 never can be known definitely what part was played by these 

 or other poisonous gases in the destruction of human life. 



Under date of September 5, Wm. J. Durrant, druggist, of 

 Kingstown, St. Yincent, writes me that great volumes of 



