Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1902-05-23
AFTER RECENT ERUPTIONS
ST. VINCENT SETTLERS RETURN
Most HOrrid Details Are Revealed
Thousands of Bodies Have Been
Buried-Lava Covers Balance of
Bodies-Lava Covers an Area 10
Miles Square.

Kingston, st. Vincent, May l9.--In the
absence OF symptoms OF further eruptlons
OF the volcano OF Soufriere, the inhabitants
Of st. Vincent are gradually becoming set
| tied.
Most horrifying details of the condition
cattle and human corpses lay in a stat.
of decomposition for several days DUR
ing the agitation, are revealed. Although
the number of deaths in the island due
to the disaster is estimated, Judging from
the missing inhabitants, at 1000, up to the
night of May Is only 1918 bodies had been
buried
The undiscovered bodies are probably
covered with lava. In small shop
which was opened three days after the
eruption, 81 decaying corpses were dis
covered, and not one of them was rec
ognizable. In the dwelling house of the
manager of one of the estate 80 corpses
were found in a similar condition, and
other sickening discoveries have been
made. The district is being rapidly
cleared.
A number of patients have been brought
to this city. Many are suffering from
fractured skulls, caused by stones thrown
from the volcano, and majority of them
were burned by the lava thrown up with
the vapor
Toward evening yesterday there was a
slight convulsionA followed by a small
discharge of smoke, but this caused no
alarm. The weather is fine and the ex
element is abating.
The bed of lava in the Windward dis
triet is still hot The abyss, 1900 feet
deep and 200 feet wide, which existed be-
tween Langley Park and Rabacci, is
filed with lava, and the principal features
of the mountain on either side are appar
emily more beautiful than before the erup
ton.
A curious circumstance connected with
the eruption is that the earthquakes
were not general, notwithstanding the
smallness of the island. While at Chat
eau Belair the commissions preceding the
eruptions OF. May were almost continu
GUS every few hours, in Kingston and
Georgetown only go shocks were felt in
four hours.
Although attended with smaller loss T..
life, the eruption of La Soufriere was
not less violent than that of Mont Pelee.
in the island of Martinique. The area
covered by lava comprises l6 square
miles. The fact that the loss of life and
damage to property in st, Vincent were
smaller than in Martinique is due to the
position OF La Soufriere and the smaller
population of the district, the mountain
oVerhanging sugar and arrow root q
tates and a couple of thinly populated
villages, whose inhabitants were given
warming of the approaching disaster ard
fled for their lives. All the villagers who
remained were killed.
The officials of ST. Vincent are busy
relieving the suffering and housing the
SICK and homeless The problem now
facing the government is how to provide
permanently for the natives who lost
houses, lands and everything they DOS,
sessed. The peasant settlements NAV be
formed on the estates, the lands of which
the government possesses the legal ma
chinery to appropriate, but money Is
needed to assist the settlers to build
houses thereon, and to provide them with
sustenanee during the cultivation of their
lands.