MITCHILL ON THE EARTHQUAKES, &C. AT ST. VINCENTS. 315 



remembered as an instance of friendship and generosity in the highest 

 degree honourable to its authors. 



It does not appear from any document in my possession to what ex- 

 tent these earthquakes prevailed; nor in what manner they affected the 

 remote and internal provinces. 



Description of the Volcano and Earthquake which happened in the Island 

 of St. Vincents, on the 30th day of April, 1812. 



The gazette published at Bridgetown, in Barbadoes, for May 6th, 

 1312, contained the original intelligence of a terrible eruption in the 

 mountain called Soujfriere, in St. Vincents ; and this may serve as an 

 introduction to the present paper. 



" Amongst the evils, natural and experimental, which this island did 

 already most wofully experience, it has now to enumerate the awful 

 visitation of an eruption of the Souffriere Mountain; which, in its 

 symptoms and effects, surpasses the most terrific picture we can possi- 

 bly draw of it. The following, as far as we have yet ascertained, are 

 the particulars. 



" On Monday last, a loud explosion of the volcanic mountain took 

 place, followed by an immense column of thick sulphureous smoke, 

 which suddenly burst over the vicinity of the crater, and in the course 

 of a minute discharged vast quantities of volcanic matter. The whole 

 surface became covered with ashes, which presented an alarming ap- 

 pearance ; and the noise which proceeded from the bowels of the moun- 

 tain, threw the whole neighbourhood into the utmost consternation. 



