432 



Dr. Tempest Anderson and Dr. J. S. Flett. 



mountain has, for reasons to be subsequently discussed, received 

 comparatively little of the deposit, and at Point Espagnol, Owia, 

 Fancy and Quashie Point, along the north shore, the cliffs and the 

 country for some short distance behind them are perfectly green and 

 flourishing. 



On the south side of the Soufriere a deep and broad valley has been 

 eroded in the soft A r olcanic ash and agglomerate, of which this part of 

 the hill consists. It runs almost across the island, between the Morne 

 Garu Mountain and the Soufriere, and it is this valley which has 

 received the greater part of the ejecta of this eruption. The streams 

 which flow into it — the Wallibu River on the west and the Eabaca Dry 

 River on the east — have had their courses filled with fine hot sand 

 mixed with coarse bombs and ejected blocks. We were told that on 

 the west side the ravine of the Rabaca Dry Riyer had been about 

 200 feet deep. It is now almost entirely filled up, and the river is 

 slowly cutting its way through the hot sand which occupies it. The 

 same thing is happening in the Wallibu Yalley, but here erosion is 

 more advanced, and cliffs of grey hot ash, some 80 feet high, overlook 

 the stream at a point about a mile above its mouth. On the flatter 

 ground between the river gorges which trench these broad valley 

 bottoms the deposit is very much thinner, perhaps 3 to 5 feet on the 

 windward side, but often 12 feet, and sometimes 30 or 40 feet, on the 

 leeward side. 



The distribution and thickness of the recent ashes is not at all such 

 as would have been expected had these materials merely rained down 

 from above. Wlierever there is a hollow it has been filled up, however 

 deep. For some days after the eruption the stream valleys were level 

 with their banks. On the flat ground the deposit is much thinner, and 

 on the ridges and spurs which stand up prominently there was com- 

 paratively little accumulation. To the mind of a geologist examining 

 these valleys one comparison was irresistibly suggested — they 

 resembled nothing so much as a rugged country covered with blown 

 snow. The ash had drifted into and filled up the depressions, while 

 comparatively little had rested on the ridges between. It is conceiv- 

 able that mud lavas flowed down at an early period in the eruption, 

 and occupied the lower parts of the gorges ; but we saw no evidence 

 of this, and as wherever the deeper layers of the ash are exposed they 

 are still burning hot, it is obvious that they could never have reached 

 their present position in the condition of a mud lava. When we saw 

 this country its surface had been deeply scored by the rains, but those 

 who visited it shortly after the first eruption described it as having a 

 smooth, gently rolling surface like that of blown sand. This is well 

 shown in photographs taken by Mr. Wilson, of Kingstown, on May 14. 

 The conclusion was forced upon our minds that immense quantities of 

 hot sand had rushed down the hill into these valleys in an avalanche 



