St. Vincent^ and 3It. Pelee, 3Iarti?i{qt(,e. 339 



Judging from the account of the guide Romain, * from the 

 "IS^otes relating to the history of the eruption of 1902," as 

 translated in the Century Magazinef from the issue of Les 

 Colonies for May 7, from the description by Lafcadio 

 HearnJ and frorn my own observations while on and near the 

 mountain, the Etang Sec was the real crater lake of Mt. 

 Pelee corresponding, though dry. since the eruption of 1851, 

 to the crater lakes of La Soufriere, on St. Yincent, Mt. 

 Misery, on St. Kitts, and others. Its basin is said to have 

 contained water until the eruption of 1851 drained it. The 

 Etang Sec is stated to have been 700 meters (2300 feet) 

 above the sea ; its plain was estimated to be about 300 meters 

 (986 feet) across, and the great circle surrounding it was judged 

 to be about 800 meters (2628 feet) in diameter at top. This 

 last estimate agrees closely with my estimate of the diameter 

 of the present crater at top. The walls of the ancient crater 

 must have risen almost precipitously from 1600 to 2100 feet 

 above the Etang Sec, except on the southwest, where was 

 located the great gorge through which flowed the waters of 

 the Riviere Blanche, the sources of which were in the eastern 

 side of the ancient crater.§ Before the eruption which began 

 last April, the crater of Pelee, except for the size of the great 

 gash, must have been very much like the crater of St. Yin- 

 cent's Soufriere and that of Mt. Misery, St. Kitts, as I saw it 

 July 8 on my way home, and probably those of the other 

 volcanic cones of the Lesser Antilles. 



The whole interior of the crater was not seen entirely free 

 from steam at any one time, but enough was observed to 

 determine its character in its eastern, southern and western 

 portions and to infer the shape of the remainder. The crater, 

 like that of the Soufriere, is in the top of a broad, truncated 



eastern end of the " Somma" ring of Pelee bounds fhe little plateau on the 

 north, but there is no cliff to the south ; on the contrary, the plateau slopes 

 off to the south into the head ravines of the Falaise Eiver. It seems as if 

 Deckert must have gotten his north and south points interchanged in his 

 description. The two small craters of 1851 mentioned by Deckert (loc. cit., 

 p. 426) are covered now, probably, by the inner cone, while the series 

 of little craters in the gorge below those"^ of 1851 must have become covered 

 by the debris from the same cone, or have had the evidences of their 

 existence destroyed by the tornadic blasts of the present eruption. 



* The Century Magazine, vol. Ixiv, p. 623, August, 1902. Translation from 

 Les Colonies of May 5. 



fThe Century Magazine, vol. Ixiv, p. 631, August, 1902. 



I " Through a cloud-rift we can see another ^crater-lake twelve hundred 

 feet below, said to be five times larger than the Etang we have just left [the 

 Lac des Palmistes, near the summit] ; it is also of more irregular outline. 

 .... It occupies a more ancient crater and is very rarely visited ; the path 

 leading to it is difficult and dangerous,— a natural ladder of roots and lianas 

 over a series of precipices." — Two Years in the French West Indies, by 

 Lafcadio Hearn, p. 288. 



§See Romain, loc. cit. 



