SOUFRIERE, AND ON A VLSIT TO MONTAGNE PELEE, IN 1902. 
515 
Even after the dust had settled down, and the steam mounted from the sea and 
forced a path obliquely upwards through the air, the white cloud cut its own way, 
maintaining its separate identity for a prolonged period. 
Of these gases the most abundant was certainly steam. At first it was dry, 
invisible, superheated ; afterwards condensation set in, and it formed a fleecy cloud 
of mist. All the symptoms of the injured are in harmony with the theory that 
steam and hot dust were the deadly agencies at work. The feeling of suffocation 
experienced by the survivors, and the exhaustion of the air so that it did not supi^ort 
respiration, are all explicable in this way. The falls of moist ash and of hot mud, 
which were more or less local, but were observed by many, are natural consequences 
of the abundance of superheated water vapour. 
Next in abundance, in St. Vincent at any rate, was suljjhurous acid. All the 
survivors agree in this ; they describe it as the smell of burning matches. Most of 
the medical men who attended to the injured in St. Vincent considered that dry, hot 
steam and hot dust were the iDiincipal components of the cloud, and that sulphurous 
acid was very abundant, so abundant that it might have even caused some deaths, 
and have been responsible for some cases of bronchial catarrh and pharyngitis, 
though it was not possible to separate its action from that of the other constituents, 
which would have been, on the whole, similar. On account of its smell, the sulphur 
dioxide was very conspicuous, but it did not leave any very startling effects. We 
did not learn of anv cases of bleachino- or discoloration, or of the formation of crusts 
V C? ' ' 
of sulphite or sulphate, on any objects of metal. 
In St. Vincent sulphuretted hydrogen was also present to some extent. It was 
recognised by several competent observers. The silver ornaments on the arms of 
some of the coolie women turned black in a minute or two. Months afterwards the 
mud around the crater stank of sulphuretted h 3 nlrogen till on a hot day it gave one 
a headache. But the medical men did not attribute any deaths to it ; symptoms of 
poisoning by its action were not observed ; asjjhj'xiation, burns, and shock were the 
chief causes of death. 
It may be that in realit}^ not sulphuretted hydrogen but metallic sidjihides (such 
as calcium sulphide) were originally present, and that in presence of moisture they 
were decomposed at a certain temperatui'e, and hydrogen sulphide produced. This is 
the most probable explanation of the abundance of that gas in the month of June in 
the wet mud near the summit of the hill. 
As has been remarked by Professor Lacroix and his colleagues, theie was com¬ 
paratively little sulphur in the magma of Pelee, and analyses show that it is certainly 
more abundant in the ejecta of the Soufriere. But for weeks before the fatal May 
8th there was a strong smell of sulphuretted hydrogen in the streeta of St. Pierre, 
and the old name Soufriere, given, to the Etang Sec, is an enduring witness to the 
presence of that gas. All the Caribbean volcanoes emit it; it has given a name to 
many a crater and fumarole in the various islands. It was certainly present in the 
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