.SOUFRIERE, AND ON A VISIT TO MONTAONE PELEE, IN 1902, 
501 
for one or more to Ijecome inconspicuous or disappeai-, wliile occasionally tlie 
preliminary stages of one eruption are continuous with the closing stages of another. 
We have adopted them as convenient I’ather than as necessary, and as affording 
merely an easy and simple method of classifying the observed facts. 
1. The premonitory symptoms of the eruptions have been very noticealde at 
St. Vincent, and much less obvious in Martinique. They consist of numerous 
earthquakes, not so violent as to damage houses, l)ut so fre([uent as to awaken 
apprehension. They have on more than one occasion been observed for a year l)efore 
the outbreak. That was the case before the eruption of 1902, and also, according to 
Humboldt, before that of 1812.'"" Before the eruption of 1718,t earthquakes were 
frequent during the previous month. They have invariably been most violent around 
the base of the volcanic cone, especially on the west and east sides, and have never 
been conspicuous in Chateaubelair and Georgetown. They are not known to have 
taken place l)efore the eruption of May 18th, but in that case tlie area over which 
tliey are felt had been completely evacuated. Wlien tlie throat of the cmter lias 
been recently cleared by a previous eruption they are never so violent as after a long 
period of quiescence, when the passages are occupied liy masses of solid rock. 
At Martinique the first indications of activity in April, 1902, were the increased 
action at the Soufriere, the emission of steam from the summit crater, the formation 
of lakes of boiling mud, and tlie fall of fine ashes on the surrounding country. Since 
the first great eruption that destroyed St, Pierre the subsequent outbursts liave 
given little or no warning. Eartlupiakes have not been at all numerous in 
Martinique, either before or during tliese eruptions. 
2. The Preliminary Stages .—In their duration, their violence, and the constancy 
of their occurrence, these vary as much as do the premonitory symptoms. They 
consist of the emission of steam in increasing volumes fi'om the crater, with fine, 
ashy dust, small lapilli, and fragments of rock from the crater walls, the discharge of 
the crater lakes as torrents of water or of hot mud, with loud detonating noises, and 
in some cases numerous earthquakes accompanying the explosions. In Martinique 
the earthquakes were few and attracted little attention, but fissures were opened in 
the flanks of the volcano, and through these the crater lakes discharged, steam arose 
from many fumaroles, and the rivers were augmented by flows of l)oiling mud. In 
St. Vincent no fumaroles and no fissures are recorded, there was apparently no 
change in the temperature or volume of the springs, tlie crater lakes were driven 
over the lip of the depression, aiid tlie fall of ashes around tlie volcano was quite 
inconsiderable. In Martinique the preliminaiy stages of the great eruption were 
prolonged over a period of two weeks. Ash fell steadily on the leeward slopes of the 
mountain during that time. In St. Vincent, in 1812, the preliminary stages occupied 
* HrMBOi.ru’s ‘ Personal NanatiA-e,’ English translation liy Williams, a'oI. ii., p. 22G. See also 
anonymous narratiA'e cited aboA'e, p. IGS. 
f Defoe’s ‘ NarratiA^e,’ cited ahoA'e, p. 45G. 
