424 
DRS. T. ANDERSON AND J. S. FLETT ON THE ERUPTIONS OF THE 
to the absence of any torrential downpours in the months of May and June, there was 
less erosion, and it was not very difficult to understand what had been the appear¬ 
ance of the fields of ash and sand immediately after tlie great eruption. 
For seven or eight days after the 7th May, the Wallibu river had been choked 
with hot sand, and no water was seen to reach the sea at its mouth. Thereafter the 
flow was resumed, and erosion of the sand accumulations began, hut for some days 
was inconsiderable. The first photographs taken after the rains, however, show that a 
deep and narrow gorge had now been cut in the new ash deposits, and on each side of 
the channel were terraces marking pauses in the progress of erosion. During the 
days of downpour there must have been magnificent explosions of steam all along this 
valley as the river ploughed its way through hot banks of ashes, but we did not 
obtain any descriptions of these from eye-witnesses. Probably the whole mountain 
was enveloped in clouds of steam, as in all the valleys the same process was going on, 
and moreover the water sinking into the sand (which was still burning hot a few 
inches beneath the surface) must have generated enormous masses of vapour. 
The lower part of the Rabaka Dry Ptiver, which alone had at this time been 
examined, was, on the 11th and 12th, dry, but not encumbered with any great accu¬ 
mulation of ash. Some days elapsed before water was seen to flow past Ptabaka. It 
was hot and on more than one occasion it came down in floods of boiling mud. These 
were, no doubt, due to the uneven surface of the sand deposits farther up the valley 
forming temporary lakes by blocking the course of the stream, and as the barriers 
were cut down or swept away before the pressure of the water, these lakes suddenly 
discharged their contents. From the time of the rains onward this river has been 
o 
seen smoking all along its upper part, though it is only for brief periods after heavy 
showers that the water reaches the sea, and it is then always black, turbid, and 
very hot. 
On the north side of the Soufriere the thickness of the ash deposits had been com¬ 
paratively slight, and the streams were able to reassert themselves, and to resume 
their flow after a few days. The water was unfit to drink, being tainted with sulphu¬ 
retted hydrogen and mineral matters in solution, and there was a deficiency of rain¬ 
water, so that the steamer “ Wear ” was sent there with supplies. The inhabitants 
did not entirely desert the district till after the 18th May, when the last were 
removed by steamer to King.stown. It is worth recording that at Baleine a spring 
issues from the rocks, and this was found by Lieutenat Pobixsox* to be unaltered, 
and its waters perfectly good and fresh. The heavy rains did no great damage on 
the north shore of the island, but as the crops and trees were in large part unburnt 
at Owia and Sandy Bay, they were stimulated by the moisture and put out fresh 
green leaves. 
Oil the slopes above Sandy Bay and Overland Village the standing timber had 
been broken, overturned, and stripped of its leaves and branches, and a deposit of 
* Blue Book ‘ On the Volcanic Eruptions in St. Vincent and Martinique in hlay, 1902,’ p. 89, 
