RECENT VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS IN THE WEST INDIES. 
273 
by slow degrees. It was therefore impracticable to make our base of 
operations on land near the scene of eruption. Fort de France was too 
far away to be available, except at a ruinous expenditure of time and 
money in going to and fro. It was therefore determined to engage 
a sloop, provision it, and live on board, moving by day to any point 
where landing was desirable, and retiring at ‘night to some safe 
anchorage within reasonable distance. We devoted our first duty to an 
examination of the ruins of St. Pierre, and in the evening we moved 
about 2 miles south along the coast and spent the night at anchor 
off Carbet, just at the limit of the area of devastation, at a spot 
commanding a full view of the mountain. Next morning we returned 
to St. Pierre, and moored the sloop to one of the buoys at the north end 
of the town. Dr. Flett landed and further examined the ruins, while 
I remained on board and took photographs of the magnificent cauliflower 
masses of dust and steam which were frequently ejected from the great 
triangular fissure above mentioned. Later in the afternoon we sailed 
further north along the coast, still taking photographs of Mont Pelee, 
which was clearer that day than we ever saw it before or after, and 
showed to great perfection the deeply eroded valleys with which its 
slopes are scored. They much resemble those in corresponding position 
on the slopes of the Soufriere in St. Vincent, and appear to be formed 
in the same way in strata of similar composition, viz. fragmentary ejecta 
from the volcano which had consolidated to form soft tuffs, and had 
subsequently been eroded into their present forms by ordinary atmo¬ 
spheric agencies. 
I have ventured thus to write in narrative form as leading up to 
the occurrence of that memorable evening. We returned and sailed 
slowly south past the base of the volcano, witnessing and photographing 
many small explosions and their cauliflower clouds of dust, and thus 
twice crossing the track of the eruption which took place later. We 
anchored as before oft Carbet, and watched the sun set behind the 
clouds of ashes ejected bv the volcano. Vv hen approaching the horizon 
and thus view r ed, the sun appeared a sickly yellowish-green, and so 
pale that it could be looked at with the naked eye vfithout discomfort. 
Later on, after sunset, the gorgeous after-glow r appeared, and the thin 
clouds in the western sky were lit up with most brilliant red, beginning 
perhaps 30' or 40" from the horizon, while the part below still remained 
yellowish-green. Later still, as the sun sank further below the horizon, 
the yellowish-green area sank also, and only the reds remained, till 
they too sank out of sight, and gave place to the light of a brilliant 
three-days-old moon. We had sat on deck absorbed in watching this 
superb spectacle, and were just going to begin supper, when one of us, 
looking towards Pelee, said, “That cloud is different to the others. It’s 
quite black, and I m sure it’s coming this way.’' A few T moments’ ex¬ 
amination confirmed this, and, the captain’s attention being called to it, 
