The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1902-05-17

The town Of st. Pierre, reported to have
been totally destroyed with it's $4,000 in
habitants by volcanic eruption, was
one Of the most picturesque towns in the
West Indies. It was the metropolis of
Martinique, famous for Its marvellous
landscapes, it's beautiful women, and his
torically noted as the birthplace of the
Empress Josephine Although the island
is uncommonly free from the hurricanes
that annually devastate some portion of
the Antilles, Martinique has suffered
from disastrous earthquakes. But never
before has calamity been wrought by the
volcanoes to which the island owes its
origin.
Martinique, among the best known of
the French colonies, occupies a West In
Antilles, 400 miles southeast Of Porto
Rico, thirty-three miles south of the
British island Of Dominica, and twenty
two miles north Of St. Lucia, another
English possession.
It was Columbus himself that discov-
cred, June 5, 1902, the island then called
by its Carib inhabitants Matinina or
Maliana, corrupted by the later French
settlers into Martinique.
The greatest length Of the island is
forty-three miles, it's average width nine
teen miles. It's area Is PA, 900 acres or $50
square miles.
Land of Ghosts.
So beautiful geographically is this
caribbean treasure that it has been called
ale Pays DIES Revenants," the land of
the ghosts, where nature holds the wan
dering souls in fast betwitchment
Magnificent Martinique rises from the
blue waters, not as single volcanic cone.
but in three groups OF rugged peaks, all
clothed in rich verdure even to the sum-
1 hiph
volcano to whose surprising and deadly
activity is due the late disaster.
The moist atmosphere of the island, the
mild, equable temperature, ranging from
rs to SO degrees, and seldom exceeding IS
degrees create a balmy climate, of which
the heat is moderated by sea breezes ana
fresh winds from the mountains. To the
same unvarying abundance Of heat and
moisture are due the famous forests of
the island, which are thus described by
Or. Ruiz:
only the sea can afford us anv term
of comparison for the attempt to describe
grand bos (great forest); but even then
we must imagine the sea on a day of
storm, suddenly immobilized In the ex-
preston Of its mightiest fury. For the !
SUBMITS Of these vast woods repeat all |
the inequalities Of the land they cover; |
and these inequalities are mountains from |
fortytwo to forty eight hundred feet In |
fundity. All this is hidden, blended to-
gether, smoothed over by verdure, In soft !
and enormous undulations, in immense !
billowings Of foliage. Only, instead Of a |
blue line at the horizon, you have a green |
line; instead of Hastings of blue, you have |
Hastings of green, and in all the tints, !
In all the combinatioz.s of which green |
Is capable-deep green, light green, yell |
low-green, black-green.
when our eyes grow weary-if it in: i
deed be possible for them to weary-of |
contemplating the exterior of these ire
mendous woods, try to penetrate little |
Into their interior. What an inextricable |
chaos It is! The sands of the sea are |
hot more closely pressed together than |
the trees are here-some straight some |
curved, some upright, some topping, falls \
en- OR leaning against one another, or J
heaped high upon each other. Climbing
lianas, which cross from one tree to the H
other, like ropes passing from mast to I
mast help to fill up all the gaps in this
treillage; and parasites-not timid~ para
sites like ivy or like moss, but parasities
which are trees self-grafted upon trees
dominate the primitive trunks, Qyerwhelm
them, usurp the place of their oIage and
fall back to the ground, forming fictitious
You do not find here,
as in the great forests of the North, the
eternal monotony of birch and fir: this
the most diverse elbow each other, in
terlace, strangle and devour, each other;
au ranks and orders are confounded as
In a human mob. The soft and tender |
balisier opens it's parasol of leaves beside |
the gommier, which is the cedar Of the
colonies; you see the acomat, the: cour-
baril, the mahogany. the tendre-a-caillou
The ironwood-but well enumerate by
name all the soldiers of an army! Our
pax, the balata, forces the palm to length
en- itself prodigiously in order to get |
few thin beams Of sunlight; for it is as
difficult here for the poor trees to obtain
one glance from the king Of the world, as
FOR us, subjects of a monarchy, to obtain
one look from our monarch. AS for the
soil it is needless to think of looking at
It; it lies as far below us, probably, as the
bottom of the sea; it Disappeared, ever SO
long ago, under the heaping debris under
q sort Of manure that has been accumil-
lating there since the creation; you sink I
into it as into slime: you walk upon
putrefied trunks in a dust that has no
name! Here, indeed, it is that one can
get some apprehension of what vegetable
antiquity signifies; q lurid light Qurida |
lux, sreenish, las wan at noon as the
llght OF Inc moon at midnight, confuses
forms and lends them q vague and fam
tastic aspect; mephitic rumidty exhales
from all parts; an odor of death prevails;
and calm which is not silence (for the
ear fancies 1t can hear the great move
ment of composition and Of decomposition
oerpetually going on), tends to inspire you
with that old mysterious horror which the
ancients felt in the primitive forests OF
Germany and Gaul:
<Arboribus suus horror NEST "a
Horror turks within the trees1
The Indigenous fora of the island In
cludes the silk cotton tree, several
species Of mahogany and the i'm
caleta or ironwood The other j
plant products are as numerous as those
Of equitoria1 South America. and are ar
much the same character.
Creatures that creep and crawl swarm
n Martinique. There are crabs of every