Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1902-05-18
PROFESSOR ROBERT r. HILL.

Washington D. c. May Q. - Across the throat
,car,bhees, which are really smoldering furnaces
with fires always banked up always ready to break loth
at unexpected and inopportune moment ms group
commencing with Saba the north near our own for'o
Rico and ending with Grenada the SOUTH near TIM
dad consists of ash heaps piled up IN times past
by volcanic action These old ash heaps have weahefeu
into fertile soil which bathed by undue share OF moist
urs has become covered with ripe growth OF damp ana
rolderng vegetation. This same soil also produces All
the vegetable products OF the tropics lhese 'or
islands have been slowly pling up since the oes
ming the tertiary period and their bases extend Denea
the waters for depth great their submits project
above it, making their total height nearly ten thousand feet
above their submerged bases.
The northern islands the necklace. like Saba and St
u,atus are simple crater cones but center of the
chain consists of larger islands Guadalupe Domni
ca St Lucia and ST. Vincent each OF which rs eomplicat
cd mass Of old volcanic vents whose peaks attain their
grur,est height in Mount Diablotm OF Dominica 414I feet
These volcanoes do not conform to the type
rhth people have in mind for from them there now
nc fiery streams do they always give days OF
warning before outbreaks On the other hand their eup
ous consist OF hot water cnders and mud Their eXpo
with terrific suddenness and when least expect
ed volcanoes which eject lava the ascending column
OF liquid vbrates the earth for days even months
leorc the surface and people of the vicinity
can always oreel eruptons 1t is not so with the cinder
ypo for they explode suddenly their damage with
out much warning.
While explosions by which the mud and cinder type
been sudden they have taken place only
a. long intervals time, each adding its pile to the
surface debris and oblteratng the previous landscape
has been long since any explosions have occurred
that geographers well inhabitants of the islands
had considered otces which produced them we're
spent and classified them extinct volcanoes.
Il is true the soufrere of Guadalupe has sent up
from its summit from time mmemorial faint pufs OF
steam and upon Dominica and other Of the islands
there few hot springs but for nearly hundred
years there has been the least sign of explosion
There also old crater soufrere the island OF ST.
Iucia which contains some boiling springs
What happened at Mount Peee probably this: A
gaatic explosion of steam gas accompanied by a
sh redhot cnders which, falling upon homes ond
shipping burned and partially buried them Vocanism Is
still OF the most nexpcable and profound problems
which denes the OF biologists to explain and one
singular is the fact that sometimes breaks
forth simultaneously In widely distant portions OF the earth
the time OF the explosion of ST. Vincent other explosions
preceded followed 1t in Northern South America and
Central America
The present ouburst on Mount Pelee in Martinique is
apparently the elimination of number OF recent volcanic
disturbances which have been unusually severe Coman
Mexico, in eruption but few months while Chill
par cgo the capital of the State OF Guerrero was nearly
destroyed by earthquake which followed. Only few
days cities of Guatemala shaken down by tremen
earthquakes. In a few days when the can be
from the inaccessible interior of Central America
il will probably be learned that some of the numerous vol
carrie SUBMITS of that region have exploded Although
wide distant there to be geological relation be
tween the Caribbean Central American volcanic chains
The whole region Of the American Mediterranean in
stead OF being body of water it appears the
IL looked upon by biologists great east and west
tain system whose ridges except the great Antilles are
submerged beneath the water where profound valleys and
submerged mountain found between the bank,
and depths This Antlean mountain system suddenly ter
each end to the east and west with lines OF
volcanoes running at right angles to it, These the vol
carlo chains OF Central America and of the Caribbee Isl
enas. II is singular fact that both these volcanic chains
of the peculiar type which erup cinders and mud end
l. certainly appears there sympathetic rea
tiC between them.