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



" The Souffriere Mountain, the most northerly of the lofty chain 

 running through the centre of this island, and the highest of the whole, 

 as computed by the most accurate survey that has yet been taken, had 

 for some time past indicated much disquietude ; and from the extraor- 

 dinary frequency and violence of earthquakes which occurred within 

 the last year, portended some great movement or eruption. The 

 apprehension, however, was not so immediate as to restrain curiosity, 

 or to prevent repeated visits to the crater, which of late had been more 

 numerous than at any former period, even up to Sunday the 26th of 

 April; when several gentlemen ascended it, and remained there some 

 time. Nothing unusual was then remarked, or any external difference 

 observed, except rather a stronger emission of smoke from the inter- 

 stices of the conical hill, at the bottom of the crater. To those who 

 have not visited this romantic and wonderful spot, a slight description 

 of it, as it lately stood, is previously necessary and indispensable to form 

 any conception of it, and to the better understanding the account 

 which follows; for no one living can expect to see it again in the per- 

 fection and beauty in which it was on Sunday, the 26th of April. 



" About two thousand feet from the level of the sea, (calculating from 

 conjecture,) on the south side of the mountain, and rather more than 

 two thirds of its height, opens a circular chasm, somewhat exceeding 

 half a mile in diameter, and between four and five hundred feet in 

 depth; exactly in the centre of this capacious bowl, rose a conical 

 hill, about two hundred and sixty or three hundred feet in height, and 

 about two hundred in diameter, richly covered and variegated with 

 shrubs, brushwood, and vines, above halfway up, and for the remainder, 

 powdered over with virgin sulphur to the top. From the fissures in the 

 cone and interstices of the rocks, a thin white smoke was constantly 

 emitted, occasionally tinged with a slight bluish flame. The precipitous 

 sides of this magnificent amphitheatre were fringed with various ever- 



