434 



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



duced by a violent hurricane, only more complete, for many of these 

 trees had withstood the hurricane which ruined St. Vincent in 1898. 

 At the lower limit of this region some curious effects of the hot sand 

 blast could be seen. Where any branches or trunks were still stand- 

 ing, they invariably showed themselves to be burnt and eroded on one 

 side — that next the crater — the wood having been charred and the 

 charred material removed by the action of a hot sand blast. On the 

 side away from the crater, the original bark was still left, unburnt 

 but dry and peeling off; that is, there had been no erosion on the 

 sheltered or lee side of the stems. The wood was too green to take 

 fire, but the sand had been sufficiently hot to char the surfaces which 

 were exposed to it. 



Further up the hill — that is to say, above the 1500 feet level, there 

 was little left of the rich tropical vegetation which had covered it 

 from summit to base. Blackened remains of tree-trunks were to be 

 seen, overturned or broken off near the ground, and buried in dark 

 sand. The highest parts of the mountain are as bare and desolate a 

 scene as could be imagined. The ash is 5 to 12 feet deep, and though 

 full of large blocks and spongy bombs, is mostly so fine that when 

 thoroughly wet it becomes a mud, very tenacious and slippery, in 

 which one sinks to the knee. In it there is a good deal of burnt 

 timber, utterly blackened and converted into charcoal. Everything 

 has been mown down, and at the same time the intense heat has con- 

 sumed all the smaller fragments and charred the larger. There is 

 nothing to show what was the velocity of the blast when it left the 

 crater. After a couple of miles it was that of a hurricane or tornado. 

 The limits between the zone of uprooted trees and that of trees still 

 standing, but broken and much damaged, is surprisingly sharp. At 

 4 miles from the crater the blast was travelling at 20 to 40 miles an 

 hour, and rapidly slowing down. This agrees with the evidence of 

 an eye-witness who saw it when it reached the sea near Chateaubelair. 

 It came over the water with a wave before it, but it did not overturn 

 the small boats which lay in its course. 



Another peculiar feature of this blast is the manner in which its 

 course was modified by irregularities in the configuration of the 

 ground over which it passed. To the north of the crater stands the 

 encircling crater wall, already referred to as the Somma, There can 

 be no doubt that a black cloud descended over this side of the 

 mouncain, though here the devastation is comparatively slight, and it 

 is inferred that the high intervening ridge overlooking tbe crater 

 served as a rampart and helped to protect the country behind it from 

 the effects of the blast. The southern lip of the crater, on the other 

 hand, is the lower, and the avalanche of hot sand seems to have 

 poured over this lip almost like a fluid. Down the deep open valley 

 between the Soufriere and the Morne Garu Mountain it rushed, ever 



