Newport daily independent., 1902-09-18
DESTRUCTION OF ST. PIERRE
Whether It Was by Hent-BIast or Aerial Gas Explosion Remains
 to Be Decided.

The problem of exactly how St. Pierre and its inhabitants were de- Stroyed is still before us. There are two theories, says Century.
 1. The heat-blast theory. This as- sumes that the lapilli, gases, and steam of the cloud were ejected with suffi- cient initial force to destroy buildings from two to five miles distant, and were sufficiently hot to infame the city and destroy the people by singe- ing, suffocation and asphyxiation.
 2. The aerial gas explosion theory. This postulates that the weight of the cloud causing it to descend, the exhaustion of air, the flame, and the great aerial force developed, were the products of an explosion caused by the union of gases of the cloud with the oxygen of the air. which took place in the air, but near the surface of the ground.
 From whatever point of view the subject is approached. all the evidence focuses upon a single deduction: that there was q terrific aerial explosion within the cloud after it erupted from the mountain, which developed tre- mendous destructive forces. and that the situation of St. Pierre adjacent to the bluff behind it was such that the reverberation caused therefrom as sisted in it's destruction.
 The position of the cliffs enclosing the area of devastation would have had much to do with the destruction of St. Pierre, inasmuch as places out side of the cliff-bound amphitheater and upon the edge of the plateau above it's depth were spared from de- struction.
 The aerial explosion, if it occurred, involves the presence within the cloud of a combustible gas, but science is still unable to state it's nature. The distinguishing of explosive gas in- wolves faculty of scientific special iZation which the writer does not pos sess; but as sudden and mysterious as was the great secret, it has left it's traces and clews, which the detectives of science will follow up. Metal sur faces of objects in the ruins will be ex- amined and analysed for traces of sul- phur and chloride. The deposits from the numerous steaming fumaroles are already within the chemical labora- tory. Even the ash and rocks of the island will be submitted to minute in- vestigation.
 Haunting my mind is a hypothesis which may be but dream, and which cannot be proved, yet is one which would explain all the phenomena.
 On that fatal morning two clouds erupted almost simultaneously from the mountain, one following the other at slight interval. The first of these came from the open flue of the summit chimney and hoated southward hori- zontally toward Mont Vert. In this cloud developed violent storm of elec- tric discharges. The second came from lower down the mountain at the spot probably known as La Soufriere or LEstang Sec. The eiecta from the latter vent were not from an open fiue, as the summit cloud, but were from the initial explosion of an ancient vent long clogged up by an accumulation o1 old material and sulphurous gases. belng heavy with gases, and while roll Ing toward the city, what would have happened had that host of electric sparks from the upper cloud flashed into the lower aerial mass of super heated gases, even though they had otherwise refrained from already uniting with the oxygen?