The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-06-05
PROF. HEILPRIN'S STORY.
TO THE CRATER OF MONT
 PELEE.
Graphic Description of tho Dangerous
 Adventure i'm Behalf of Science.

Fort de France, Island of Martinique
 June AS D. m.-Professor Heilprin
 president of the Philadelphia Geograph-
 ic Society, who is here for the National
 Geographic Society, came into Fort de
 France last night from his explorations
 of the crater on the summit of None
 Pelee. The following important points
 have been settled by Professor He'll prin:
 The location of the new crater has
 been accurately determined; it is posi- lively known that there has been no overflow of molten matter from the lip of the crater; there has been no subsl-
 dence of the mountain, and the height
 of Mont Pelee is unchanged; the crater
 does not contain a cinder cone; there
 has been no cataclysm and no topo- graphical alteration of the country. The period of violent eruptions has probably ended, although the volcano may continue to be quietly active for a long time to come.
 | Referring to his expedition, Professor
 Heilprin said to-day to the correspond
 ent of the Associated Press:
 l T left Fort de France with MT. Lead
 better the morning of May 29 and reached Acier at ' o'clock in the even- 1 ing of the 30th. We visited Vive and
 Basse Pointe. The latter place has been
 entirely destroyed by the overflow of
 the local stream.
 | Mud flowing into the beds of the riv-
 CTS there caused this overflow. Many important usines are seriously menaced l by the floods.
 May 31 we made our first ascent of | the volcano; we left Acier at half-past | five and Vive at half-past seven o'clock | in the morning on muleback. The par | ty consisted of Mir Leadbetter and my self and three colored boys. At an all titude of 700 metres we began the as- cent of the Arete we passed along its east side and slightly to the north of the mountain. We arrived at the lip of the old crater, the former site of Lake Palmiste, at il o'clock. Here it began raining. Rain clouds and the clouds from the volcano enveloped us, and we could not see ten feet. A terrific thun-
 der storm had begun and we sat on the
 edge of the crater for some time spec
 ulating whether the detonations we
 heard were of thunder or from the vol cano. As we afterwards found the Riv- CT Fallaise to be boiling, the detona- tions were probably volcanic. We could not tell how near we were to the crater, as, either from local attraction CT the electric conditions, our compass refused to work It's variation was about twen- ty degrees to the eastward, but later we found that it noted normally at the lip of the new crater. The colored boys with us were horribly scared. We finally groped our way down that aW- full Arete through gloomy clouds of rain and amid great electric discharges At every step we dislodged the rain soak ed ashes, and were in danger of being precipitated down the hideous gorges on either side.
 The extreme top of the volcano is and angular rocks which had been ejected from the crater, Further down the mountain is covered with ashes and mud and these are thick on the arete. On our way down We saw the r.ver Fallaise rushing along with great ve- loclty and full of steam and mud. We reached Acier well, but soaked, caked with mud and very much disappointed.
 At Acier we met George Kennan, and his party and determined to at- tempt second ascent the next day, June f. The scent made this day with MT, Kennan was more trying and dffi- cult than the one l had previously made with MT. Leadbetter. The day was intensely hot and 1t was raining When we reached the old crater, 1t was in, ir, Iro Tho ature of the basin of Lake Palmiste, | taken three inches below the surface, | was 124 degrees Fahrenheit. Between | lifts in the clouds of vapor we could | see the new crater of which MT. Varian made an excellent sketch. Suddenly | the vapor cleared away and we made l a dash forward. We reached the edge | of the new crater, and from where we stood we could have dropped stones i into the white hot mass within. The new crater is a hole running north and | south and expanding into a bowl. This crevice nearly ritfed the mountain; it runs transversely to the old crater, and might be called huge gash.
 "As we stood on the edge of the crater sublime spectacle began. I now have some conception of what is going on inside the earth, and have been a spectator of natures secret in- .erior work. We were assailed with noises, far below there was hissing of steam like thousand locomotives as we'll as violent detonations. The prin- ,ipal output of the crater, while we were there, was steam. The phenom- ma were limited and were not essen- ially different from those of other vol ,anoes in action Positive assurance vas gained that no molten matter has lowed over the lip of the new crater. Several excavations taken with the lneroid barometer showed that the height of Mont Pelee had not been hanged. I agree with Professor Rob- rt T. Hill, the geologist of the United States government. that Mont Pelee as erupted no lava and that there has een no catatclysm nor any serious to- alterations. No cinder cone J vas visible in the crater. What was aken for a cone is a pile of elected |, ocks. Perhaps the bottom of the new rater may contain a cinder cone, but 1e could see down only about 150 or O0 feet I do not know the axapt ma l