RECENT VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS IN THE WEST INDIES. 
271 
the recent eruptions, which have often been nearly synchronous, has 
been into this depression, and especialty into its westerly portion. In 
hoth islands the recent eruptions have been characterized by paroxys¬ 
mal discharges of incandescent ashes, with comparatively few larger 
fragments and a complete absence of lava. 
There are, however, a few points of difference. The eruptions 
of St. A incent have been altogether on a much larger scale than 
those in Martinique. The area devastated was considerably larger, the 
amount of ashes ejected probably ten times as great, and if the loss of 
life was not so large, this is accounted for by the absence of a populous 
city at the foot of the mountain. If such a city had existed at the 
mouth of the AA allibu river in St. A incent in the position corresponding 
with that of St. Pierre, there can be no doubt that it would have been as 
completely destroyed as that unfortunate city. AVhile both volcanoes 
show practically a single vent, this is much more marked in the case 
of St. ATncent, where excepting the new crater, which is really 
pait of the old or main one, there is not a single parasitic one. AVe 
saw no fumaroles, no hot springs, nor any trace of radial cracks and 
fissures. 
On Mont Pelee, it is true, the main activity is confined to a restricted 
aiea about the summit of the mountain, and the top of the great 
fissuie which extends or extended from this down in the direction of 
the Iiivieie Blanche; and there are no parasitic cones comparable, for 
instance, to those which are so numerous on Etna ; but there are many 
fumaioles, which Prof. Lacroix and his colleagues speak of as emitting 
gases hob enough to melt lead, though not copper wire. A telegraph cable 
has been three times broken at about the same place, and the broken 
ends on one occasion, at any rate, showed marks of fusion of the 
insulating medium. There are also several hot springs. Judging 
fiom these and other indications, it is most probable that radial cracks 
entered deeply through the substance of the mountain, and penetrated 
even the submarine portion of its cone. 
I low s of mud have also nlayed a much more conspicuous part on 
Mont Pelee than in St. A incent. Quite early in the eruption a great 
flow of this kind came down the Piviere Blanche and overwhelmed the 
Psine Grueiin, which stood near its mouth, so that now nothing remains 
visible but the upper part of the chimney stack. It is probable that some 
at least of these mud-flows may have been due to the discharge of the 
small crater lake which existed before the eruption, or to heavy rains, 
the w ater in either case behaving in a manner comparable to wdiat we 
saw in the AVallibu, but, at any rate, they occupy a more prominent 
Part in the descriptions of these eruptions than in those of the 
Soufriere. 
Not only has the amount of erupted material been much less, but its 
distiibution has been much more local than in St. A incent, and this is 
