Oldalképek
PDF
ePub
[graphic]

THE

EVENING

PENNANT.

GLOW ON PELEE'S From "The Tragedy of Martinique." J. B. Lippincott Co. Copyright.

the detonations, and but a few feet away the the seething, sweltering crater of the most destructive volcano the world has ever seen, will always stand out in my memory as a weird and horrible dream."

Undeterred by these perils they made the next day another visit to the summit. "We were four feet, perhaps less, from a point whence a plummet could be dropped into the seething furnace, witnessing a scene of terrorizing grandeur which can be conceived only by the very few who have observed similar scenes elsewhere. Momentary flashes of light permitted us to see

far into the tempest-tossed caldron, but at no time was the floor visible, for over it rolled the vapours that rose out to mountain heights."

The narrative recalls the present editor's experience on Mount Vesuvius. The flowing bed of lava, the swirling clouds of steam, the suffocating sulphurous vapour, and the frightful detonations of the crater, with violent ejections of scoria every few minutes, were something never to be forgotten.

For weeks and months Mount Pelee kept up its bellowings and explosions. A graphic chapter, entitled "Battling with Pelee," de

[merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic]

MUSHROOM-SHAPED CLOUD OVER PELEE.

From "The Tragedy of Martinique." J. B. Lippincott Co. Copyright.

mountain fairly quivered under its work, and it was perhaps not wholly discreditable that some of us should have felt anything but comfortable. A whistling bomb flew past us at this time, but it left but a comet's train in our ears, for it could not be seen. We took it at first for a flying bird, but its course was soon followed by another, and then came the dull thud of its explosion in the air.

roar of the volcano was terrificawful beyond description. It felt as if the very earth were being sawed in two. For the first time since we reached its slopes were we permitted to see its steam column-that furious, swirling mass ahead of us, towering miles above the summit, and sweeping up in curls and festoons of white, yellow and almost black. I estimated the diameter of the column

as it left the crest of the mountain to be not less than fifteen hundred feet, and its rate of ascent from one and a half to two miles a minute, and considerably greater at the initial moment of every new eruption. We were spattered with mud from head to foot by a great boulder, hardly smaller than a flour-barrel, which fell within ten feet of us, or less."

Professor Heilprin was an eye witness of the eruption which destroyed the town of Morne Rouge. The pathos and tragedy of the scenes he witnessed beggar description. Instructive chapters are given on the volcanic eruptions at St. Vincent, on the volcanic relations of the Caribbean Basin and on the scientific study of the phenomena of the eruption. The ascensive force of the steam-column was very great, rising, as he estimated, to a height of not less than six or seven miles, but this was far less than the steam-cloud of Krakatoa, which rose nearly nineteen miles. The light ashes of that eruption were diffused throughout the upper strata of the atmosphere for many thousands of miles, and created the remarkably lurid sunsets which

were

so conspicuous a feature throughout the world for many months. Some of these eruptions,

at least, he estimates, were of superheated steam shot out as a violent blast, with possibly a mixture of other gases. There was no flame accompanying these. Even the dry palm thatching was not ignited.

The following is Professor Heilprin's theory as to the causes, or mode of action, of these stupendous phenomena: "The numerous disturbing incidents, whether volcanic or seismic, that have latterly crowded themselves into the history of this zone or region, as, indeed, they had already done two or three times before in a period of a hundred years together with the unquestionably interrelated manifestations that developed as a part of the synchronic movement, lead one to believe that all of these disturbances have a common origin, whose initiative is to be found in a readjustment of the floor of the Caribbean Basin."

The energy of the volcanic action of Mount Pelee may be inferred from the fact that volcanic ashes fell upon the decks of vessels 660 miles to the eastward of the island and that detonations accompanying some of the eruptions were distinctly heard at a distance of 300 miles.

[blocks in formation]
[merged small][graphic][merged small]
[graphic]

YING about seven hun

dred and thirty miles south-east of Halifax, N.S., is a group of islands whose climate, soil, and picturesque scenery render them especially interesting to us, and yet they are strangely unfamiliar even to most well-informed readers. Speaking our own language, and having the same origin, and recently associated with us in religious fellowship as forming a branch of the Methodist Church of Canada, the people are bound to us by many ties of sympathy and interest.

Within half a week's travel from our own shores it is hardly possible to find so complete a change in government, climate, scenery, and vegetation as Bermuda offers. The

voyage may or may not be pleasant, but is sure to be short. The Gulf Stream, which one is obliged to cross, has on many natures a subduing effect, and the sight of land. is not generally unwelcome.

The

delight is intensified by the beauties which are spread out on every hand. The wonderful transparency of the water, the numerous islands, making new pictures at every turn, the shifting lights on the hills, the flowers, which almost hide the houses that peep out here and there from their bowers, make up a scene as rare as it is beautiful. And so, making our way slowly through the labyrinth of islands, a sudden turn brings us into the pretty harbour of Hamilton, which is the capital and principal town of Bermuda.

The arrival of the steamer has been heralded by the customary signal-a flag from the Government

[merged small][merged small][graphic][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
« ElőzőTovább »