SOUFRIERE, AND ON A VISIT TO MONTAONE PEL EE, IN 1902. 
493 
We ran down to Carbet, about miles south of St. Pierre, where we came to 
anchor on a sandbank a little north of the ^dllage. One of us went ashore to make 
the final arrangements with the porters who were to come on hoard before dawn next 
day, and to ascend the hill with ns. After purchasing some food he returned, and 
now the sun was setting behind a dense pall of ashes which hung over the leeward 
side of the mountain like a dark fog, and over the sea to the westward for a distance 
of several miles from the mountain. From the fissure in the volcano, clouds of pale 
slaty vapour rose constantly, and, spreading out, they floated away before the trade 
wind. We could see that puff followed puff; each could he distinguished, though 
they followed one another at intervals so l)rief that as each expanded it melted more 
or less completely into the streaming cloud mass which swept across the hill. The 
sun behind this cloud became a pale yellowish or greenish-white disc, easily observable 
with the naked eye long before it touched the rim of the horizon. 
In the rapidly-falling twiliglit we sat on deck intently watching the activity of the 
volcano, and calculating tlie chances of an ascent next inorning, when our attention 
was .suddenly attracted t(j a cloud v'hich was not exactly like any of the steam 
“ cauliflowers” we had hitherto seen. It was globular, with a bulging, nodular surface ; 
at first glance not unlike an ordinary .steam jet, hut darker in colour, being dark slate 
approaching black. But In its shape there was nothing very distinctive. Its 
behaviour, however, was unique. It did not ri.se in the air, hut rested there, poised 
on the lip of the fis.sure, for quite a while as It seemed, and retained its shape so long 
that we could not suppose it to he a mere steam cloud. Evidently it had been 
emitted with .sufficient violence to raise it over the lip of the crater, hut it was too 
heavy to soar up in the air like a mass of vapour, and it lay rolling and spouting on 
the slopes of the hill. The wind had no power over it, fresh protuberances spuifed 
out from its surface, hut It did not drift to leeward any more than if it had been a 
gigantic boulder. For a little time we stood watching it, and slowly we realised that 
the cloud was not at re.st hut was rolling straight down the hill, gradually increasing 
in size as it came nearer and nearer. We consulted together; it seemed so strange 
and so unaccountahle, hut in a minute or two suspicion gave place to certainty. It 
seemed that the farther the cloud travelled the faster it came, and when we took our 
ev'es ofi‘ it for a second and then looked hack it was nearer and still nearer than 
before. There was no room for doubt any longer. It was a “ black cloud,” a dust 
cloud, and was making directly for us. So with one accord we prepared to get out 
of its path. We helped the sailors to raise the anchor and, .setting the head sails, we 
slipped away before the wind. By the time the mainsail was hoisted we had time to 
look l)ack, Imt now there was a startling change. The cloud had cleared tlie slopes 
of the hill. It was immensely larger, hut still rounded, globular, with boiling, 
pillowy surface, pitch black, and through it little .streaks of lightning scintillated. It 
liad now reached the north side of the hay, and along its Ijase, where the l)laek mass 
rested on the water, there was a line of sparkling lightnings that played incessantly. 
