eir appearance. Volcanic eruptions are almost always preceded by
earthquakes somewhere in the circle. Recently there were earthquakes
in the City of Mexico in which many lives were lost. As it is
impossible to predict when the next will take place, it is also
impossible to tell where it will be. It will certainly be somewhere in
the line of the two circles.

"All this is of interest as showing that the earth is still in process
of formation just as much as it was a billion years ago. We see the
same thing in Yellowstone Park. There most decided changes have taken
place even in the last eight years. Old Faithful, which used to play
regularly every sixty minutes, now does so only once in twice the
time."

With reference to contributions to science, which might be expected
from investigations at Martinique, Professor Crook said:

"Even new elements might be discovered, and seismic theories either
confirmed or disproved. A volcano always throws off a great variety of
materials, hydrochloric and sulphuric acids, iron, silica (sand),
sulphur, calcium and magnesium. The lava is of two kinds. That which
is easily fusible flows more rapidly than a horse can trot. A more
viscous kind cools into shapes like ropes. The latter is common in
Hawaii.

"The danger of living in proximity to a volcano is usually well known,
but the iron oxides render the soil extremely fertile. This is seen in
Sicily about AEtna and Vesuvius. It is seen also in Martinique, where
an area of forty miles square was occupied by 160,000 people.

"Owing to the presence of the fumes of chlorine it is probable that
many of the victims in St. Pierre were asphyxiated, and so died
easily. Others doubtless were buried in ashes, like the Roman soldier
in Pompeii, or were caught in some enclosed place which being
surrounded by molten lava resulted in slow roasting. It is indeed a
horrible disaster and one which we may well pray not to see
duplicated. Science, however, has no means of knowing that it may not
occur again."

Professor Robert T. Hill, of the United States Geological Survey, who
visited the French West Indies on a tour of scientific inspection,
says:

"Across the throat of the Caribbean extends a chain of islands which
are really smoldering furnaces, with fires banked up, ever ready to
break forth at some unexpected and inopportune moment. This group,
commencing with Saba, near Porto Rico, and ending with Grenada,
consists of ancient ash heaps, pi