The suburban citizen., 1902-06-07
ISLAND FIERY FURNACES
cARl55EEs ARE GREAT ASH HEAPS
EVER READY TO EXPLODE.

Professor Robert 4. Hill, of the
United States Geological Survey, and
geologist of the Agasslz West Indian
Expedition, writes in the New York
Herald as follows: Across the throat
of the Caribbean extends chain of
islands (the Carribees). which are real
ly smouldering furnaces, with fires
banked up, ever ready to break forth
at some unexpected and inopportune
moment. This group, commencing
with Saba, ON the north, near our own
Porto Rico, and ending with Grenada,
on the SOUTH near Trinidad, consists of
ancient ash heaps, piled up in times
past by volcanic action. These old ash
heaps have weathered into fertile soil,
which, bathed by an undue share of
moisture, has become covered with
ripe growths of damp and mouldering
vegetation. This same soil also pro-
duces all the richest vegetable products
of the tropics. These volcanic island
Of the tropics.
These volcanic islands have been
.
the Tertiary Period, and their bases
extend beneath the waters for a depth
as great as their SUBMITS project above
IT, making their total height nearly
10000 feet above their submerged
bases.
The northern islands Of the neck
lace, like Saa and st. Eustatius, are
simple crater cones, but the centre of
the chain consists Of four larger ISL
ands-Gaudeloupe, Dominica, San
Lucia and st. Vmcent-each of which
is complicated mass Of old volcanic
vents, whose peaks attain their great
est height in Mount Dioblotim in Do
minica, 4747 feet above the sea.
These volcanoes do not conform to
the type which most people have in
mind, for from them tbere flow no fiery
streams Of lava, nor do they always
give days Of warning before their out
breaks. On the other hand, their erup-
tons consist Of hot water, cinders and
mud. Their explosions come with ter
rife suddenness and when least ex-
pected. In volcanoes which eject lava,
the ascending column Of molten liquid
vibrates the earth for days or months
before it reaches the surface, and the
people of the vicinity can always for
tell the eruptions. This is not so with
the cinder type, for they explode sud-
, denly and do their damage without
much warning.
While the explosions by which the
mud and clnder were elected have
been sudden, they have taken place
only at long intrvals Of time, each one
adding its pile to the surface debris
and obliterating the previous land
scape.
1t had been so long since any eXplo-
sions occurred that most geographers
as well as the inhabitants of the ISL
ands, had considered that the forces
which produced them were spent, and
classified them as extinct volcanoes.
1t is true that the soufriere of Gaude-
lOupe has sent up from its summit
from time immemorial faint puffs of
steam, and that upon Dominica and
other OF the islands there were a few
hot springs, but for nearly a hundred
years there had not been the least sign
Of explosion. There Is also an old
crater or soufriere on the island of
San Lucia which contains some boil
ing springs.
Within human history there has been
but one serious eruption in the Carri-
bee Islands, but this, like the present
catastrophe, was one of the most de-
structive the world had ever seen. In
1912 the mountain Of Morne Garon, on
the island Of st. Vincent, about ninety
miles south of Martinique, exploded.
The explosion was most fatal and
far reaching catacylsm, being equaled
in recent years only by that Of Kraka-
| toa, in the Straits of Sunda. In Car
acas, 10000 persons were buried in a
single moment, and after this event
ruin was wrought all along the line
of the Andes by earthquakes.
, Morne Garon vomited vast clouds of
dust, which darkened the sun for an
! entire day and spread over a hundred
miles of sea and land. The volumes Of
mud changed the confguration of the
island as well as its eastern end. The
present crater, formed at that time,
is half mile in diameter and 500 feet
deep, and is now a beautiful lake,
walled in by rocky cliffs to a height OF
! 800 feet. Its slopes are covered with
peaceful vegetation and fields of cane.
The Island of Martinique is com
posed almost entirely of old volcanic
material, and is dominated by three
conspicuous peaks which have prob
! ably been volcanic in the past. Mont
/ Pelee, the highest Of these is 442S feet
in height, and dominates the northern
end Of the island. Near the centre of
the island is Corbet, $500 feet in
height, and near the southwestern end,
Vauclin, 1857 feet.
In a peaceful blight behind the shell
tering lee of PeIee lay st. Pierre. This
city, with its 25,000 inhabitants, iso-
lated from the rest Of the island and