374 
Dl’tS. T. ANDEESON AND J. S. FLETT ON THE ERUPTIONS OF THE 
acquainted with any other part of the higher slopes than those adjoining the 
footpath. 
Another element of danger is the suddenness and severity of the rain-showers 
which send torrents down the valleys, which sweep everything before them. The 
Somma wall beliind the crater can only very seldom have been climbed. Certainly 
the white inhabitants of St. Vincent are not lacking in energy or enterprise, but 
we did not meet anyone who had ever stood upon the actual top of the Soufriere. 
During the three weeks we spent at the base of the mountain, we did not once 
get a clear view of the summit of this ridge, and to climb it in a dense mist would 
have been not less arduous than unprofitable. 
Magnificent sections are afforded by tbe sea cliffs on the leeward side of the 
Soufriere, between Morne Donde and Quashie Point, and in the deep ravines of the 
Rozeau Dry River, Larikai, and other streams which descend the mountain slopes. 
On the windward side also there are very fine inland cliffs above Overland and Sandy 
Bay. We had also frequent opportunities of examining the sections in the gorges on 
the south side of the mountain in the course of our ascents to the crater. As a 
result of our study of all the available exposures, it is clear that the Soufriere is a 
massive volcanic cone, consisting of alternating beds of lava and of ashes which on all 
sides dip outwards from the summit cratei’S at angles of 12° to 15°. 
Some of the lavas are thick (50 to 100 feet), but on the north-west side especially 
they are thin and numerous. Occasionally seven lava flows witli sheets of ashes 
between can be traced above one another in a single cliff or the side of a ravine. 
They contrast in this respect with the thick lavas of the southern end of the island 
and the very massive accumulations of tuff in which they occur. 
The centre from which the lavas diverge and have proceeded is the summit of the 
hill and the craters which occur there. We saw no evidence of parasitic cones or 
minor eruptive foci. There are also few or no dykes, and intrusive sheets are rare or 
absent. There is abundant proof that the eruptions took place on a land surface. 
In these respects the volcano is of the usual Antillean type, and differs only from its 
extinct neighbours in that its activity has shown less of exjilosive violence, and more 
frequent gentle outpouring of lava has been habitual in their case. 
The structural relationships of the gigantic crater of the Somma to the present 
craters within it are not entirely understood, but as the northern wall of the larger 
of the present craters is composed of lavas and ash beds with a northerly dip, it seems 
that a new cone has been built up within that depression by repeated flows of lava 
and showers of ash. On the south side of this crater are tufts and lavas dipjjing 
south, which must have been emitted from the present vent, though no line 
of demarcation could be drawn between them and the older rocks which belonc- to 
to 
* See James Anderson, “An Ascent of Morne Garu,” ‘Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc.,’ vol. 75, p. 16, 1785. 
F. A. Ober, ‘Camps in the Caribbees,’ 1880. Gilbert Hawtrey, “Lost on La Soufriere,” ‘The 
Wide World Magazine,’ vol. 9, p. 523, September, 1902. 
