ed on its site, spreading death and destruction
on all sides. Three days later the eruption took place and devastated
the city of St. Pierre, wiping out the inhabitants and changing a
garden spot to a desert.

"A vast column of steam and ashes rose to a height of four miles above
the sea, as measured by the French artillerymen at Fort de France.
After this eruption the mountain quieted somewhat, but burst forth
again at 5:15 o'clock on the morning of May 20. This explosion was
more violent than that which destroyed St. Pierre.

"On this occasion the volume of steam and ashes rose to a height of
seven miles, according to measurements made by Lieutenant McCormick.
An examination of the stones which fell at Fort de France showed them
to be of a variety of lava called hornblende and andesite. They were
bits of the old lava forming a part of the cone. There was no pumice
shown to me, but the dust and lapilli all seemed to be composed of
comminuted old rock.

"It is evident that the tornado of suffocating gas which wrecked the
buildings asphyxiated the people, then started fire, completing the
ruin. This accords with the statement which has been made that
asphyxiation of the inhabitants preceded the burning of the city. The
gas being sulphureted hydrogen, was ignited by lightning or the fires
in the city. The same tornado drove the ships in the roadstead to the
bottom of the sea or burned them before they could escape.

"Mud was formed in two ways--by the mixture in the atmosphere of dust
and condensed steam and by cloudbursts on the upper dust-covered
slopes of the cone washing down vast quantities of fine light dust. No
flow of lava apparently has attended the eruption as yet, the purely
explosive eruptions thus far bringing no molten matter to the surface.
The great emission of suffocating gas and the streams of mud are among
the new features which Pelee has added to the scientific knowledge of
volcanoes."

Professor Hill was the first man who set foot in the area of craters,
fissures, and fumaroles, and, because of his high position as a
scientist, his story was valuable. He reported as follows:

"There were three well marked zones: First, a center of annihilation,
in which all life, vegetable and animal, was utterly destroyed--the
greater northern part of St. Pierre was in this zone; second, a zone
of singeing, blistering flame, which also was fatal to all life,
killing all men and animals, burning the leaves on t