422 
DRS. T. ANDERSON AND J. S. FLETT ON THE ERUPTIONS OF THE 
reports, which are iu many cases highly sensational and grotesquely inaccurate, but a 
limited number of personal narratives have been jjublished over the signature of 
persons well known in the islands, which have been of the greatest value to us. Of 
these we may mention the diary of Mr. T. M. McDonald the notes by Captain 
Calder,! by the Rev. Mr. Darrell, j by Bishop Swaby, of Barbados ;§ and the 
account given by Captain Freeman, of the “ Roddam,”|| and by the first officer of the 
“ Roraima,” Mr. Ellery S. Scott, ^ of the eruption which destroyed St. Pierre, in 
Martinique. 
THE RAINS. 
For nearly two weeks the weather had been on the whole remarkably dry, and 
although showers had fallen on several days, they had been light and local. That 
steam was seen to ascend on certain occasions from the valleys and ravines on the 
Soufriere proves that there had been a certain rainfall, but it was jrrobably greater on 
the highei' slopes than on the lower grounds, and all over the island the vegetation 
was parched and dusty, and the fine ash blowing to and fro caused great inconvenience. 
A general and considerable fall of rain was urgently needed, and it was not long in 
coming. On the afternoon following the second eruption, a sharp shower fell on the 
north end of the island, and the Soufriere smoked all over its surface as the water 
came in contact with the hot sand. Four day's later rain fell in torrents. The 
record of the rain-e;auo'e in the Botanic Gardens at Kino-stown is as follows :— 
9 A.M. on 23rd to 9 a.m, on 24th.2‘43 inches 
24th „ 25th.5-16 
,, 25th ,, 26th.0’82 ,, 
23rd 2Gth 8‘41 indies. 
A total of nearly 84 inches in three da vs. 
In the south end of St. Vincent these heavy rains did nothing but good. The 
parched and dust-laden vegetation v^as cleaned, refreshed and invigorated. The 
more tender plants had lost tlieir buds and young foliage, while the stout leaves of 
many of the trees had been perforated or torn, or, in some cases, even stripped from 
the branches by the rain of stones and scoria. The woods and fields rapidly reassumed 
their green aspect, and the beneficial effect of the rains was great and immediate. 
But in the north end of the island, where the fields lay buried beneath a layer of 
* ‘Sentry,’ Kingstown, May 16, 1902. ‘Century Magazine,’August, 1902. 
t ‘Century Magazine,’ August, 1902. 
I Printed in Kingstown, and sold for the benefit of the Relief Fund. Dated May 12, 1902. 
§ ‘Barbados Advocate,’ Saturday, May 24, 1902. 
I] ‘Pearson’s Magazine,’ September, 1902. 
!l ‘ The Cosmopolitan,’July, 1902. 
