454 
1)R8. T. AXDEKSOX AXD J. S. FLETT OX THE ERUPTIOXS OF THE 
On the devastated estates a new soil will form, and agriculture will go on as before. 
The chano’es in the crater will remain, but they are not of o-reat mao-uitude, and 
should the volcano sink into repose, a new lake may gather not unlike the old one, 
and the rocky rvalls will be again covered with green forest. 
In addition to the widening of the crater and the obstruction of the valleys, the 
only important alteration in the geography of St. Vincent which has been occasioned 
by this eruirtion is the disappearance of a narrow .strip of land along the leeward 
coast. It extends from AYallibu to Morne Ronde, and had a maximum breadth oi 
23erha})S 200 yaixls. Between these two points there formerly stretched a low flat beach 
on which ran the public road. Two villages stood on this beach, one at Wallibu, the 
other at Morne Ronde, and both have totally disappeared. The road is gone, and the 
bluff wliich .stood behind it lias now receded for .several yards, and presents a clean-cut 
section to the sea. At first the water washed its base, but the soft loose ash is 
constantly tumbling doAvn, and a narrow beach had formed when we were there. It 
was not safe to explore this cliff vei'y closely, for the hot dry ash above was frequently 
slipping every here and there, and masses of many tons were being precipitated on 
the shore (see Plate 25, fig. 1). 
Mr. Robertsoxt, of Wallibu, told us that 64 acres of that estate which lay between 
the bluff and the sea have vanished, and the chimnev of the works, formerlv about 
200 yards from the shoi'e, is now quite near the edge of the cliffs. The subsidence 
runs all aloiio- the coast to a little south of Morne Ronde Point, a distance of nearly a 
O V 
mile, and although the face of the cliff has been somewhat modified by .slipping and 
by the erosive action of the rivers and the sea before we arrived, it is clear that 
originally it was a nearly straight line. 
There can be lu) doubt that the low beach below tlie bluff was mostly a talus of 
material fallen from the cliffs or brought down by the rivers and spread along the 
shore. The .Submaiine slopes off Wallibu are very steep, depths of 120 fathoms being 
found in less than half a mile from the laud. This means an angle of 16°, and as at 
Morne Ronde and along this shore the earthquakes attendant on the eruptions were 
more severe than anyAvhere else in the i.sland, it is probable that this loose talus slid 
down into deeper water. Then the cliff behind the beach, Ijeing composed of soft, 
incoherent ash, would crumble away and break down, as it was doing when we were 
there.* 
At the mouths of several of the streams further north along this shore there were, 
before the eruption, little patches of flat ground on wliich, in .some cases, stood the 
houses of peasant cultivators. These consisted of matter Iirought down by the 
torrents which flow in the deep ravines on this side of the mountain, and deposited in 
the .shape of alluvial fans wdieii the current of the streams was checked on reaching 
the sea. 
* See also T. A. Jagoak, ‘‘Field Xotes of a, Geologist in Martinique and St. Vincent,” ‘Popular 
Science Monthly,’ a'oL 61, p. 363, August, 1902. 
