terribly
virulent poison when the first whiff of the gases entered their lungs.

There were many of the victims who died with their hands to their
mouths. That one motion of the arm was probably the only one that they
made before they became unconscious. Others fell to their faces and
died with their lips pressed into the earth. There was no time to run,
perhaps no time even to cry out, no time to breathe a prayer. It was
as if St. Pierre had been just dipped into an immense white-hot
furnace and then set out to cool. Mount Pelee went sputtering on, but
that made no longer any difference. In the city all life was destroyed.

Every combustible thing was burned. Animal bodies, full of moisture,
glowed awhile and then remained charred wrecks. Wood and other easily
combustible things burned to ashes. On the ground lay the bodies,
amidst heaps of hot mud, heaps of gleaming ashes and piles of volcanic
stones. That was all.

That St. Pierre and the strip of coast to the north and south of it
were burned in an instant was probably due to the first break in the
mountain coming on its western side and immediately above them, though
the direction of the wind may have had a little to do with it. In this
way one can understand how the mountain resort of Morne Rouge, where
about 600 people were staying, escaped annihilation. Rocks and dust
and boiling mud fell upon it, no doubt harming it, but they did not
destroy it, for it was out of the pathway of the first awful blast.

For days after this most awful of blasts, beginning indeed immediately
after the first explosion, Mount Pelee continued sending down lava
streams in many directions. They filled the ravines and followed river
courses and made their way to the sea. They did great destruction, but
most of the inhabitants in their course had some chance at least to
escape.

From Le Precheur around the northern end of the island, to Grande
Riviere, Macouba, and Grande Anse, directly across the island from St.
Pierre, the lava was flowing. Great crevasses opened from time to time
in the hills. The earth undulated like waves. Rivers were thrown out
of their courses by the change in land levels. In some places they
submerged the land and formed lakes. In other places they were licked
up by the lava that flowed on them and turned them to steam.

Constant rumblings, thunder and lightning storms made the surroundings
so terrible that many persons actually died of fright.

The West