The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-04-26

to affirm that any great change in the
upper part has taken place in the inter-
vening months. Careful measurements
! for the settling of the question do not
I exist Undoubtedly some enlargement has
taken place. because from the time of
| the first eruption constant avalanches
I have taken place transferring portions
! of the vertical walls TO the bottom,
whence they have been thrown in part by
succeeding eruptions. The depth seems
to have increased notably.
On May 81, Dr. Jaggar and | estimated
the depth to the surface i'm the lake in
the bottom at 1000 feet, from the point
at which we were standing, and Mr.. Cur
tbs made 1t 1,Se0 feet. On March L estt
mated the depth at 1900 feet below the
same point, an increase of 200 or 400 feet
The conditions on the later date were
more favorable than on the earlier and the
difference may be more apparent than
real.
The volcano is showing mild activity
at present. and this is said % be rather
greater than it was at the beginning Of
February. On March 3, when our party,
consisting of NJ and Nine. Lacroix. Lieu
tenant Deville, of the French navy; the
Rev. Mr.. Muckerby and myself, with
porters were on the crater rim there
were several outbursts of great beauty
and interest, some of which sent fine
dust and mud some hundreds of feet
above our heads, and this plastered us on
it's descent in showers.
The outbursts issued from almost the
center of the hot mud lake in the bottom
of the crater sending up black mud and
white steam in a column, with the ia
miliar csulifiower convOlutions. Through
the mass many stones could be seen .is-
ing like rockets with long trails of steam
behind them. None of the stones reached
within a few days of our visit. The ex-
plosions occurred at Irregular intervals
and were of varying degrees Of inten-
sity. The smaller ones rose like foun-
tains to comparatively low heights.
The new crater was one of the OBJ
jective points of my ascent. This is on
the northeastern side of the great crater
and was formed by the eruption Of 1872
1t is stated to have been 500 feet deep be-
fore May :. In company with Mr.. Curtis
! obtained an imperfect view of this era
ter on June @ and decided that 1t had !
not participated in the present activity. F..
Its appearance then seemed to justify the
accepted estimate of its depth.
Now its depth. measured from the high /
est point on the southern edge. is about /
26O feet. the big crater having been liber- /
ally thrown into it, II has not been in I
eruption this time but there are FUN {
aroles in the rock wall forming the east
u. ~
outlet for the vapors from the heavy and (
of ash piled against 1T. There are said {
to be true fumaroles beyond the western 4
rim of the great crater in the head Of the 4
Larakai Valley and appearances from,
Chateaubelair sustain the belief: bat .
have not visited the spot yet. The sur
face of the mountain. which was slip
perry with mud in May and June. has
been coated with a hard. gravelly surface
by the eru9tiors OF September and Octo
Der. on which one finds myriad Of Gin
derry bombs of black lava These are OF
all sizes from that of a pea to that of
the head
Larger masses are not common. but on
the beach near Wallibcu factory there is
one six feet in diameter. apparently from
this eruption The sea seeu7s 10 have gain
ed still further on the land along the
strip OF coast from wallibou river TO
Norne Ronde Point hut the wallibou has
pushed its mouth further out to sea AZ
least a hundred yards.
One constantly meets the questions IN
Martinique and ST Vincent; Are the
eruptions over? Is there any further dan
ger 70 fear from the volcanoes These
are vial questions 70 the Inhabitants 81
the islands but il Is impossible 20 give
any decisive answer 70 them.
lust now Mont Pelee Is less active than
when | left the islands. in July last and
Ia Soufrierc Is slightly more active than
then perhaps. hut II IS Likewise 20 make
any predictions as % the future history
OF these Interesting and destructive open
ins-s into the Interior II ne earths mass
The tremendous eruption 81 Mont Pelee
predicted 50 specifically for December -
by French and American prophets dii
not materialize r. any sense q the wori |
and more than tn7t predicted for Ia
c~,rf -ia~n Tor -he frffn--fus- month