The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-06-02
ASCENDED MT. PELEE
PROF. HEILPRIN VIEWED THE
CRATER FROM SUMMIT.
WAS A DANGEROUS FEAT.
SAW THE VOLCANO IN ACTIVE
ERUPTION.

Top and Surveyed the Crater From
AbOve-A Vast Crevice, 500 by $50
Feet, with Huge Cinder Cone in
Center-FOUnd Another Crater at
Head of River FaIIaise, Which OPP
crates SynchrOnOusly with That
ON observation-disclosures of Hot Mud
DeIuged the Scientist and He Re
turned Looking Like Plaster
Cast.
Fort de France, Island of Martinique,
Saturday, May 81. p. m.-The Ma
tional Geographical Society has scored
tative here. Prof. Angelo Heilprin, who
this morning, with three guides. as
cended to the top of the crater on the
summit of Mont Pelee. Prof. Heilprin
is also president of the Philadelphia
Geographical Society.
Prof. Heilprin had gone to the plan
tation Vive, which is near the crater,
in company with Fernand Clerc and
Mr. Reid, landed proprietors of Mar
Unique.
lie CAptulllOli l6Ll It or ut II IdHCC
last Thursday, May 30 at noon. Fri
day was spent in studying the newly
formed craters on the north flank of
the mountain. Saturday morning Prof.
Telprin determined to attempt the as
cent to the top of the crater, and with
this purpose in view he set out at 5
o'clock.
The volcano was very active, but
amid a thousand dangers, Prof. He'll
prin reached the summit and looked
down into the huge crater. Here he
spent some time in taking careful OBJ
servations. He saw a huge cinder cone
in the center of the crater. The open
ing of the crater itself is a vast crew
ice 500 feet long and $50 feet wide.
While Prof. Heilprin was on the sum-
init of the volcano several violent eX
plosions of steam and cinder-laden va
por took place. and again and again
his life was in danger. Ashes fell
about him in such quantities at times
as to completely obscure his vision.
One particularly violent explosion of
mud covered the professor from head
to foot with the hideous viscid and
semi-solid matter. He still persisted
in his study and observations, however,
and was twice more showered with
mud. He learned, as had been expect
ed, that there were three separate
vents through which steam issued.
Full details of the professors obser-
vations cannot be had until he returns
to Fort de France.
Prof. Heilprinss journey down the
side of the mountain was fully as
perilous as the ascent. Mont Pelee
seemed to resent the intrusion of a
puny human being into her most awful
precincts, and belched out huge vol
umes of steam, ashes and boiling hot
mud.
The professor made the important
discovery that the crater at the head of
the River Fallaise has synchronous
eruptions with the crater at the sum
init of the volcano, and that it elects
precisely the same matter a such times.
Mud Thrown Up in Columns.
The river Fallaise crater and the
crater at the summit showed during
the professors visit a new phenomenon
Mud was thrown up in high columns.
Heretofore the mud had dubbed or
boiled out and flowed downward in
huge streams.
In the course of one eruption of the
River Fallaise crater an enormous
mass of intensely hot mud was elected.
This flow reached the rum distillery
on the Vive plantation and extin-
guished all the fires there. This tor
rent of mud may invade the entire
plantation, and as Vive is the center of
one of the richest districts of the ISL
and, it is feared the damage may be
great.
NJ. Clerc furnishes the following fur
Their details of Prof Heilprin's as
cent The ma Y-fU rrooadad on r1,t,IaS RI
an altitude of 700 metres, the ancient
line of vegetation. From this point
Prof Heilprin continued on foot, leav-
ing the mule that had carried him up
the steep hogback to the tree line.
Upon reaching the site of Lake Pal
miste the professor found it complete
ly dried us. He crossed the bed of
the lake and continued on up the gent
ly rising slope to the crater. Formerly
the edge of the crater was a high
bluff or shoulder. This, the explorer
found, had fallen into the great crater.
and he thinks this change probably
occurred at the time of the explosion
of May 20. This is the first important
topographic alteration in Mont Pelee
which has been noted and verified.
The Explorer Mud Coated.
Prof Heilprin arrived at the edge of
for over two hours. When he returned
to Vive he resembled a statue of mud.
The weight of ashes and mud he car
ried on his person, the horrible atmos-
phere he breathed, and the fearful off
ficulties he encountered reduced him to
a condition of extreme fatigue, not
the fact that he assembled
Mont Pelee from the most accessible
and easiest side. Prof. Heilprin may
return to Fort de France tomorrow if
he has sufficiently recovered by that
time to do so.
George Remnants Adventure.
George KEENAN, and his party, who
went to Morne Rouge, found on their
return this afternoon that bridge
across the road had been carried away
by a torrent of hot mud. Negroes
TO get the party across the
obstruction. They took the carriages
to pieces and carried them and the
me mbers Of the party to the other side
of the river, which was still hot All