The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-06-28

cauldron vaster than man ever con-
structed.
What the dimensions of the new era
ter are no one knows; while it emts
full columns of steam and smoke it is
impossible to TELL however, clear the
water. One geologue has estimated it
at 100X15G feet, but that. of course, is
mere speculation. In the crater to-
wards st. Pierre rises
Jagged cone, made by the
drollng of that mouth within the
crater through which the destructive
ejecta come. To this no man can yet
approach Its sharp vertical sides still
run with white-hot mud, visible miles
distant. According to the view one gets
of it from a point nearer than Morne
I Rouge, the cone seems to be itself in
diameter 100 feet
Our snapshots were taken at infre-
! quent moments, when the sun pierced
the vapor, but we are ignorant yet
as to whether we failed with them.
Every little While we would walk to the
edge and point camera down towards
| definite outlines.
| The noise, unlike anything else in the
world. would rise and strike into the
! breast. 1t seemed capable of filling
a definite space there, of causing an
| infia ton, of lifting one against his will,
and bearing him back away from that
] apparently DOllOIDl6SS DlI-d SENSATION
! just opposite to that giddiness which
comes to some persons standing on
a great height, and makes them hold on
! sight for fear of an impulse to jump
| Gown.
Once l went back and leaned over to
| Judge whether the ambition to enter
| the thing were not practicable if one
had brass-bound heart. But there
! was the reddish sheer side soft as
| gravel and lOOSa. and To he fo-ht
towering high, was the old Mount of the
I, Cross the rock peak of the former
| cone. After the eruption in 1851, a
| priest planted a cross on this peak to
] exercise it's fretful turbulence. The
! cross is gone. The peak is a tall, ir-
regular, perpendicular pile of shivered
rock, ready, one would say, to fall at a
touch, or from its own insecurity. This,
towering and balancing so close in the
volcanic vapor was by it's possibilities
APPALLING, and we obtained no picture of
it from below, looking upward
Acid Volcanic Fumes. E
Acid volcano fumes were troubling
our lungs. We felt an aversion to the
chance of sitting there, in that spec
trail place, close by that believing we'll.
| My comrade suggested that we oug!R
| TO camp out there till a proper blaze
| of sunlight came to give us certain
| Photographic victory. But there was
no prospect of a clear mountain that
| day; we. would better make our ex-
| aminations quickly, then go away
about our business, and not overstay
| our welcome among the powers of Pc
| lee. l backed off. The grays were ex-
| quiste, strong, enfolding. The ground
of angular broken blue-gray stone; the
aspiring, diffusing white steam of the
new crater; the rugged dark sentinel
h nh haH bod ffe1 zt,a
tered from its hold; the shadow-shapes
of my comrade and the little gourd
! carrier-they reminded one of the
Broken scene in Faust" and made
scene for tragic opera, with Vulcan,
below, forging phenomenal thunder
bolts. Every minute or two the sun
would light up this strange eyrie, but
| with no tinge of yellow.
From there the broken Peak of the
/ Cross doomed indistinct, and it occurred
to me that l should like to see the other
side of it. My comrade and the water
boy were not visible, and when 1 call
ed there was no answer, though my
own halloo sounded as though some
one had shouted it in my ears. After
walking some sixty feet along the base
/ of the columnar peak, the stiffness
| took hold of me. Was 1 sure I had my
! bearings? Just to test my sense of di
| rection, l shouted to the negroes we
had left at the lip of the old crater.
| They did not reply. / said some hard
things about their stupidity, and tried
again; without effect. However, 1
knew my way back-there was my
landmark, the smoking rock. So l
walked by the peak a little farther,
hoping to come to a new part of the
crater edge.
1t was lonesome exploration, and
retreated, found the smoking rock,
and, through the fog, made a Decline,
as / thought for the rendezvous of the
guides. Coming to the upward slope, l
shouted again. Not even an echo. At
the top found myself. not at the rem
devious, but gazing down into great
cleft in the mountainside, looking
down, it seemed, a thousand feet, along
quilted cinder coating, the color, it sud-
denly struck me, of Mexican hairless
dog. l might follow that ridge, but /
could not decide in which direction,
and descended again to the dry lake
bed. For few moments there l had
some of the sensations of being lost be-
tween a gently roaring crater and an
unscalable gorge, shut in by fog and
oppressed by silence. l megaphoned
through my hands, and whistled in
different directions and at last was
answered with: Here we are II YOU
can't find us, wen find you" / found
them then; and we all sat down to
lunch on bread and meat and water.
and then to rest, and hope for the
clouds. now condensed to a sharp rain,
to pass and clear up.
Pelee remained turbaned in mist. So
we began the descent. those ahead
dreading lest those behind should set
loose some rolling stones upon them.
Presently, we got below Pelee's turban,
only to find that. after "A clear distance
down its face, there was another scarf
OF cloud, blowing, so 10 say, across It's
chin; but below that stretched the long.
bare, sodden, slaty. Cinder watershed
we must fOilON 10 ~ foot. The dread p
fuiness Of Pelee passed al once from
our minds. The country below stretched
tranquil, richly fOliaRed, and freshly
green, marked on with hedges down
a. Windward, whore me sea sharpened
! white teeth upon the shore.
Halfway, under the lone tree strlB-
ped ~ bark ana leaves, Excelsior The
Oh gray male, huRFed the shade. HHv-
3hf pnf one rein nov a. aid BIN in
steering De- made "a reckless r0urse
QpHu the mountain. aomfflnna about
~ rlp 800 me Hbruui rayne 81 ~
itifH fHiaitn. f0mfiiufa hel0N fhs
lHif ~ afsffunfion. paufiug hlfhIn 81
tHfh ~ "a rsHHN urrripIrf by fhe Iflyrf