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

which there was declared to be a
Crater" fell dizzy distance from our
ridge down to the left. We could see
no signs of this crater or fumarole. A
little more ecru smoke showed itself
in the white sky touching column far
above; presently that was lost to view;
and we climbed without this ever-pres-
ent reminder of what we were APP
preaching, not more conscious of 1t
than the Alpine climber roping over a
peril. There was indeed one serious
satisfaction. Having lived for a day
or two on black. sOggy bread and I'M
ripe mangoes, the toll of the ascent
was stimulative to tagging digestion,
and from starting at four in the morn
ing with a throbbing headache, tenn
pies gradually claimed, and the blood
ran free and healthy by the time we
reached the hight where the dust and
cinder began to be mostly broken
stone, like that used in bodybuilding.
No Stag, no scoria, no lava, no
CLASSY rocks were in the erupted ma
terial on our path. There were yellow
ish pumice, and blush, grayish, black
ish, broken blocks, sharp cornered,
which made the barefooted guides step
daintily We guessed that the light,
reddish stone was rhyolite, and that
there was considerable andesite and
trachyte; now and then we came upon
finty splintered material, and some
dark, blush gray, that was nearly as
heavy as the emery of commerce. and
another that resembled, but was not,
granite, that true plutOnic rock Exam
ined closely, all the stone had minute
vesicles. The higher we mounted the
larger the fragments: there were num-
A "a he
OF course, of having been lately blasted
and all appeared to be old rock, blown
from the top and throat of the crater.
There was no sign of freshly melted
rock; ashes and gases had been the
main ejecta which had come from fan.
below the surface. This is Prof. He'll
prin's conclusion.
Two or three kilometers from the top
we had an enchanting prospect down
upon the green fields of Vive and Bas-
Sc Point, where white horses charg-
ed from an emerald sea upon black
shore boulders Over the shoulder of
Mount Calabasse lay in pleasant sun
light the town and church of Morne
Rouge, as though seen through the
wrong end of an opera glass. We took
second breath, one foot higher than
the other, as on an easy stair; and
the water-b boy gave us drink from his
gourd. The wind blew up moisture
which formed clouds. We got above
clouds.
VOLTA" called a guide, "c'est fini!"
pointing to a hight beyond.
A bit exhausted, we welcomed the
sight of the end, but could hardly be-
lieve that the crater which carried
such terrible doom in it's throat could
be just beyond.
That, at least, gave thrill and i'm
petus to the pulses worth having.
Men ahead waved their arms They
were mere spectres in the mist, but
stood out blackly without values On
the lip of the old prehistoric crater we
scarcely paused, but left the negroes
and fastened down into it's bed. 1t
was strewn with broken rocks, and was
shallow. This was the dry bottom of
what had been Lake Palmist, the lake
that (until the eruption of May 81 had
partly covered the top. of Pelee since
level walking, but as the guides were
behind in fog we were not eager to
lose them and our selves, in so awe
some place; consequently we obeyed
their signal to come back. We begged
them to lead us to the crater They
would not, unless the fog lifted. Final
ly, showing anger, we induced the
smallest boy to go with us in another
direction.
There was a smell that made breath
ing difficult-not fumes of sulphur, but
of something else 1 was not chemist
enough to recognize. 1t may have
been from hydrochloric acid gas. 1t
was probably a mixture of gases with
smoke and steam. What if, as we APP
preached the crater, the gases should
grow more powerful? We marched
with more caution. Aside from its
value against the peril of the vapors
the futile absurdity of any amount OF
caution in that neighborhood broke up
on us. To go ahead was no more peril
GUS now than to go back; we had mere
ly to keep our senses keen to the kind
of air we were breathing-all the rest
lay with Pelee. 1t might never erupt
again. We could not foresee to-day
that two days later it would have an
other paroxysmal action that would
kill few more people, turn all Mar.
tinique's MONDAY into twilight, and
send the citizens of PARKWAY Fort-da.
France scurrying to and fro to cover
At one side I encountered a boulder
split In places, rusty at its cracks an(
smoking hot 1 don't mind acknowl
| edging that as a reminder of the ire
mendous neighborhood it was startling
| The bellows of my camera being ex
tended and ready, l stopped to take
time exposure" Then l encountered
another rock, with yellow ferric chlor
ide (perhaps sulphur, though 1t wal
( not crystallized) incrustations, anC
waited to take" that. And in a mo
ment we saw an abrupt peak. a hug,
/ just of cracked old rock. perhaps forty
| five feet high. outlined darkly and jag
! gedly.
Hurrying up to that, we were to tn
left Of it, on the other edge of tn
steaming crater.
Gazing Into The Crater.
We could look straight down tho
orifce. It had been our ambition Il
descend and get a photograph of i
from below upward. Conditions wer,
unfayorable. We might as well hay,
| hoped 10 descend the clapboarded sid,
Of "a house without the help OF light
nin-rod or rainspout We could de-
scend, no doubt, a. that point, but IA,
| photograph would never b. developed
The edge Of the orifice was Of small
I cut volcanic blocks. similar 10 the an
/ oerlayer for macadam. A. n had n0
been built by modern science, we hal
qnalns about trusting n ~ footing
besides in the fox and smoke. We weu
on the edge before we know b.. ant
stopped short, nothing but nn un
piunfd pit before uf, from which afofi
steam ana smoke Very family I'd
/ times We could discern shadow Hllri
might he fne cone. Really about th|
/ hfti iulmufipn SAL bad fhHf 0uf ~.
Nffr on fnf verge Whh flf sudden i1H|
] HHf IHIUH HHTHIUn mod IrIfIla H.4..IID.