Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 64.djvu/228

224 Pierre. No one was hurt at either Morne Rouge or Carbet. It seems agreed among those living near the volcano, that these later eruptions were more 'fiery' than the earlier ones, indicating that there is more incandescent material ejected; thus they state that there was more 'fire' on June 6 than on May 20; and more slides or avalanches of incandescent material on the slopes of the mountain on July 9 than on June 6.

At about 8 o'clock on the morning of July 11, a vertical puff from the volcano rose 10,000 feet into the air, showing at first superb gray-brown cauliflower surfaces, and later, taking on smooth outlines, with a funnel-shape and a feathery fringe. There was only a single puff, and the cloud drifted away to leeward. A similar one was photographed on July 16 (Fig. 1).

It is of interest to compare with this record of observations at Fort de France, the notes of the British men of science on July 9 made from a vessel close to the volcano:

From the fissure in the volcano, clouds of pale slaty vapour rose constantly. . . . (About 7:30 )

In the rapidly-falling twilight we sat on deck intently watching the activity of the volcano,. . . when our attention was suddenly attracted to a cloud which was not exactly like any of the steam 'cauliflowers' we had hitherto seen. It was globular, with a bulging, nodular surface; at first glance not unlike an ordinary steam jet, but darker in color, being dark slate approaching black. . . . Its behaviour. . . was unique. It did not rise in the air, but rested there, poised on the lip of the fissure, for quite a while as it seemed, and retained its shape so long that we could not suppose it to be a mere steam cloud. Evidently it had been emitted with sufficient violence to raise it over the lip of the crater, but it was too heavy to soar up in the air like a mass of vapor, and it lay rolling and spouting on the slopes of the hill. The wind had no power over it, fresh protuberances spurted out from its surface, but it did not drift leeward any more than if it had been a gigantic boulder.

This cloud rolled straight down, gradually increasing in size as it came nearer. The further it traveled the faster it came. It cleared the mountains slope, increasing always in size, but still rounded, globular, with boiling, pillowy surface, pitch black, and through it little streaks of lightning scintillated. On reaching the north side of St. Pierre roadstead the black mass discharged sparkling lightnings incessantly along its contact with the water. The cloud quickly lost velocity and formed a black pall, with larger, less vigorous, more globular, bulging convolutions. It lay almost like a dead mass on the surface of the sea. The black cloud rose from the fissure about 7:40, and for twenty or thirty minutes the sloop sailed southward with a gentle breeze from the east. Then the wind fell to a dead calm. The black cloud cleared, above the fissure a faint red glare was seen, which slowly increased, and bright, glowing masses were seen describing parabolic paths through the