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



produced principally hot sand and dust with a small proportion of 

 bombs and ejected blocks. The evidence of the Captain of the 

 " Eoddam," and of the survivors of the "Eoraima," affords a very 

 good idea, of what happened in St. Pierre on May 8. An avalanche 

 of incandescent sand was launched against the city. In the north-end, 

 which was nearest the crater, the inhabitants were instantaneously 

 killed, the walls of the houses levelled with the ground, and the town 

 was ablaze in a moment. In the south-end the ruin was less. Those 

 walls of the houses which faced the crater were demolished ; those 

 which run north and south still stood, even when we were there, after 

 the second eruption. In this quarter also all were killed, except a 

 prisoner who was confined in an ill-ventilated cell in the prison, but 

 we were told that for some minutes after the blast had passed people 

 were seen rushing about in the streets, crying aloud with pain, and 

 many threw themselves into the sea to escape the agony of their burns. 

 It must be remembered that a terrible conflagration followed the erup- 

 tion, and for 36 hours the city was a burning pile. Another eruption 

 followed on the 18th, and cast down many of the buildings which 

 were left. Hence it was difficult to be sure exactly what were the 

 the effects of the volcanic blast, and what had to be ascribed to the 

 conflagration. But we saw enough to satisfy us that the hot blast was 

 probably no less violent here than at St. Vincent. An iron statue of 

 the Virgin, standing on a stone pedestal on the wooded cliff over- 

 looking the town, had been broken off and carried 40 feet away. It lay 

 with the head pointing to the mountain, and the direction of the 

 statue showed that the blast was travelling straight from the crater 

 over the city. The cannon in the fort had been overthrown and had 

 fallen away from the mountain, that is to say, in the same direction as 

 the statue. The projecting ironwork of the verandahs of the houses 

 was twisted and bent. The lighthouses were razed. The ships riding 

 at anchor in the harbour, were lying side-on to the blast. Some were 

 capsized, others had their rigging cut clean away ; only the " Eoddam " 

 escaped, and she was near the south-end of the town. It was said 

 that one man was blown clean off the " Eoraima." The trees which 

 were growing in the streets were uprooted and cast down. Many of 

 them showed charring and sand-blast erosion on the side which faced 

 the crater, while the lee side was still covered with the original 

 bark. 



During the minute or two which this blast lasted, so much dust fell 

 on the " Eoddam," that Captain Ford, the Harbour Master at St. Lucia, 

 estimated that 120 tons were removed from her decks when she 

 arrived there, and the Chief Engineer of the E.M.S. " Esk," who 

 inspected her for Lloyd's, told us that the depth of the layer of ash 

 was in we places 2 or 3 feet. Enough has been said to indicate 

 the general .similarity of the volcanic phenomena in Martinique 



