Newport weekly independent., 1902-06-06
TO MONT PELEE'S CRATER.
Perilous Ascent Made by Prof. Angelo Heilprin, of the National Geo.
 graphical Society.

tive here. Prof. Angelo Heilprin, who, yesterday morning, with three guides, ascended 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 plantation Vive, which is near the crater, in company with Fernand Clerc and Mir. Reid, landed pro- prietors of Martinique. This expedi- tion had been especially organized oy United States Consul Ayme and Prof. Heilprin, and was led by the latter.
 The expedition left Fort de France Thursday, May 29, at noon. Friday was spent in studying the newly formed craters on the north flank of of the mountain. Saturday morning Prof. Heilprn, determined to attempt the ascent to the top of the crater, and with this purpose in view, he set out at five o'clock.
 The volcano was very active, but, amid thousand dangers, Prof. Heil- prin reached the summit and looked down into the huge crater. Here he spent some time in taking careful ob- servations. He saw a huge cinder cone in the center of the crater. The opening of the crater itself is vast crevice 800 feet long and 150 feet wide.
 While Prof. Heilprin was on the summit of the volcano several violent explosions of steam and cinder-laden vapor took place, and again and again his life was in danger. Ashes fell about him in such quantities at times as to completely ob4cure his vision. One particularly violent explosion of mud covered the professor from head to foot with the hideous, viscid anu semi-solid matter. He still persisted in his study and observations, how ever, and twice more was showered with mud. He learned as has been suspected, that there were three separate vents through which steam issued Full details of the professors observations can not be had until he returns to Fort de France.
 Prof. Heilprin's journey down the side of the mountain was fully as l.. M seemed to resent the intrusion of a puny human being into her most aw- full precincts and belched out huge volumes 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 ha fr, 4l init of the volcano, and that it elects precisely the same matter at such times. The River Fallaise crater and the crater at the summit showed dur ing Prof. Heilprin's visit new phenomenon. Mud was thrown up in high columns. Heretofore the mud has bubbled or boiled out and flowed downward in huge streams. In the course of one eruption of the River Falla1se crater an enormous mass of intensely hot mud was elected. This flow reached the rum distillery on the Nlve plantation, and eXtinguished all the fires there. This torrent of mud may invade the entire plantation and. as Nlve is the center of one of the richest districts of the island it is feared the damage may be great.
 Mir. Clerc furnishes the fOllowinr further details of Prof. Heilprin's as cent. The party proceeded on mules to an altitude of TOO meters, the an- cient line of vegetation. From this point Prof. Heilprin continued on foot, leaving the mule that had car- ried him up the steep hog back to the tree line.
 Upon reaching the site of Lake Pal miste the professor found it com pletely dried up. He crossed the bed of the lake and continued up on the gently-rising slope to the crater. Formerly the edge of the crater was d 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 great explosion of May 20. This is the first important topograph- ic alteration in Mont Pelee which has been noted and verified.
 Prof. Heilprin arrived at the edge of the summit crater at half-past one. and remained there for over two hours. When he returned to Viye he resembled a statue of mud The weight of ashes and mud he carried on his person, the horrible ot mosphere he breathed and the fear- ful difficulties he encountered re- duced him to a condition of extremc fatigue, notwithstanding the fact that he ascended Mont Pelee from the most accessible and easiest sido Prof. lleilprin may return to Fort de France to-day, if he has sufficient.