SOUFRIERE, AND UN A VISIT TO MONTAGNE PEL EE, IN 1902. 
497 
like a rain of peas or small shot. A little afterward the fine grey ash came in little 
globules moist and adherent, noiselessly sinking through the air and sticking to 
everything on which they landed. They were not warm, and there was a slight 
but noticeable smell of sulphurous acid. After a few minutes the ash took the form 
of a dry powder, which got into our eyes and felt gritty between our fingers. 
We had now a little wind, which rose gradually to a fresh breeze, and with many 
tacks we beat up towards Fort de France, with the lightning flickering still in the 
sheet of cloud overhead, and the fine ashes on everything that we touched or tasted. 
It covered the decks, and fell from the sails and the rigging overhead, but there was 
not much of it. A thin layer, perhaps one-sixteenth of an inch thick, was all we 
found when daylight broke, and we could ascertain its exact amount. That night 
dust fell on Fort de France and the whole south end of Martinicpie, but only in very 
small (plant ity. 
As we beat up through the darkness to the harbour lights of Fort de France there 
were loud claps of thunder and bright flashes of lightning in the northern sky. They 
wei-e cpiite distinct from the growl of the mountain, the short stabbing lightnings of 
the black cloud, and the low rumble we had noticed as it passed overhead. We 
watched them carefully, and tliought they were only atmospheric, and the thunder¬ 
storm was certainly not all to the north of us, Init partly also to the north-east, 
where there was no possibility it could have been mistaken for an eruption of Pel(ie. 
There is a good deal of evidence, however, connecting sudden thunderstoiins with 
eruptions of Pelee and the Soufriere, and we cannot be sure that all the noises were 
thunder, or that the storm was not in part due to the atmospheric disturliances 
attendant on the explosion. The thunderstorm liroke out about midnight, and ])y 
that time the lightnings in the ash-laden cloud overhead were practically over. 
The avalanche of hot sand was discharged about 8.20 p.m. In a couple of minutes 
it had reached the sea, and was over. The second black cloud, which was all that 
remained of it when the heavier dust had subsided, travelled about 5 miles in 
six minutes, and very rapidly slowed down, coming to rest and rising from the sea 
in less than a cpiarter of an hour. The tongim-shaped steam and dust cloud was over 
our boat by 8.40. A few minutes aftei' that the ash was falling on our decks. 
The second black cloud did not differ in appearance from the first, except that it 
Avas larger, had a far greater velocity, and srvept out at least twice as far across the 
sea. It Avas black from the first moment AAdien Ave saAV its boiling surface in the 
moonlight. Both traAmlled A’ery rapidly oAnr the loAver part of the mountain, but 
sloAved down after reaching the sea, and came to rest comparatiAmly suddenly. The 
lightnings on the two clouds A\nre similar in all respects. 
No blast struck us—in fact, AAn Avere becalmed—and it seemed that Avhen the black 
cloud ceased the blast AAars also OAmr. Nor did the sea rage around us as some haAm 
described Avho Avere overtaken by the dust storm. When the cloud Avas passing 
overhead there was a slight rolling sea, but as the breeze freshened the boat steadied, 
VOL. CC.—A. 3 S 
