The diamond drill., 1903-01-17

Close Call Of an Exploring Party
While InvestiEstinE che Vol
canoes OF Martinique.

George Carroll Curtis, who went TO
Martinique and ST. Vincent last May
for the Century, and who made several
perilous ascents Of both craters, de-
scribes in the January number Of that
magazine the experiences OF his party.
Of one hair-breadth escape he says:
AS we were passing on our return
over the ragged, lava-like mud-fows
just above where We had forded the
Seche in the morning, three sharp
peals like thunder rang through the
valley. We called them thunder, but
there was quality in them which
have never heard in the tempest. They
were not muffied sounds, but loud and
clear; yet there was an unusual char
acter In them which seemed of terres-
trial origin. / advised Fastening. We
were now on the brink OF the river
Seche, which had swollen from the
trickling brook of the morning TO a
shin-deep rapid.
dropping down over The loose
bank; -waded quickly through, with
pebbles the size of ones fist striking
hard against my ankles. The turbid
water was blood-warm. Joseph Car
ried the cameras across, while DIR.
Hovey brought up the rear. and was
some 40 feet above on the steep river
terrace slope when / looked back at
them. Rolling up over the mountain
top was a great brown. convoluting
cloud. Ii ascended in dark, rounded
masses, stately yet with great speed,
thousands and thousands Of twisting,
worming globules, brain-shaped,
cauliflower-topped, dark almost TO
blackness. AS il shot direct from the
crater, this menacing shape spread
out and charged toward us down the
mountainside. AS the mass rose, the
middle became dark brown, passed in
TO lighter tint, and mingled with the
whitish yapor.
Running would, realized, be use
less. The eruption and it's nearness
held me in wonder and dread, so that
j did not call TO my companions below,
but waited until they had slowly la
bored half way up the slope; then
shouted down: Look at the noun
tain!" and scrambled 10 the highest
point on the fiat above. As / gained
il in hard breath and looked back, a
black thing jumped from behind a
bend in the canyon.
with heavy, earthly roar, plung-
ing wall of blacllish stuff hurled itself
with fearful speed against the side OF
the rayine, bounded to the opposite
slope and tore il down. IL rocked
from side to side as a heavy freight
train; it jumped aud staggered; it
lashed, struck down, and tore away
the earth like paper. With powders
borne high in its seething mass, this
cataract OF earth and water battered
and stormed the valley. The ground
shook hard; there was a solid, deaf
ening roar; and the earthquake about
us was continual.
"We saw the banks melt away as in
nightmare; sand, pebbles and
masses of rock flew into the air be-
fore the resistless onslaught, and fell
into the raging food and were borne
away like chaff. The stream, which
had been but ankle-deep when we
crossed two minutes before. was now
a black mob Of struggling, fighting
waters, with a charging front of mud
and rocks from ten TO Is feet high. II
came in mighty cataclysmic impulses,
and leaped upon the canyon banks,
dashing i'm waves 90 feet above the
flowing surface. We could feel the
shock of the pondering mass, plowing
through the ground, ns when train
at heavy speed grinds the rails. Look
ing down in wonder, awe, perhaps
fright. not one of us had spoken
word"