The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-06-24
LA soUFRIERE,s RUIN.
Processes Of Nature Reassert Them
 selves On St. Nincent,s Isle

Processes Of Nature Reassert Them
 selves On St. vincent's Isle.
 How far the ordinary processes of na-
 ture have begun to reassert themselves
 since the conclusion of the volcanic dis
 turbsances was the subject of in-
 vestigation at our St. Vincent's.
 The first thing that one notices is the
 remarkable luxuriance of the green growth of vegetation of all kinds. It is true that a vast quantity of unassirni- lated glassy ash is visible everywhere, painful to the eye and burning to the feet-very different from the cool. rest ful, dull blackness of the soil that I re- member two or three years ago. But
 wherever the ash has mixed well in the soil it seems to have had some fer
 tilizing effect, notwithstanding the as-
 sertions of the analysis.
 But the havoc which has been wrought among the smaller life of in
 sects and birds is deplorable I saw no lizards in the grasses, only the scantiest show of firefiies, at dusk, far fewer but terfiies and far fewer humming birds. All the high ridges of the mountains are denuded of the tall forest trees and palms which used to clothe their sum
 mits. This is, of course, due to the
 hurricane of 1896; previously one rarely saw the bare outline of an escarpment silhouetted against the brilliant sky; wrinkled waves of foliage aloe marked the configuration; but now the pre- sence of a large tree is the exception
 and even then it shows signs of ruthless storm tear. It was pleasanter to ride through the new settlements provided for the Caribs and other refugees suffer- CTS alike from the hurricane and from the volcanic eruptions. The wisdom of
 the executive in removing the dwellers
 in the extreme north of the island and finding them home outside what was then a dangerous locality was fully | justified by after events, although a considerable amount of sore feeling and 1 dissatisfaction was created at the time. But like many of the sufferers from the storm in Barbados, the depcrted
 families are now better housed than ever before in their lives. The new vil- 1 lages, with their neat cabins and plots | of land, decorate the fertile slopes and add undoubted picturesqueness to the ! leeward side of the island.
 | But what of La Soufriere herself? 1 Her last utterance was in March, 1903, and there is,eYery sign that she Is
 composing herself for another long slumber-how long or how short no man | Iolr s,,f fI,a .nf
 the crater is once again filling, and this | is considered tosbe token and promise I of good behavior. The ascent of La 1 Soufriere can no longer be made by the
 old route from Chateau Belair one is obliged to go farther north, to Wallibou and thence begin the long climb of nearly 4,00O feet. The scene, from the
 summit reminds one. in it's gloom and 1 desolation, of the Cities of the Plain.
 save few charred stunlpscan be seen. l A black wall of spitchlike looking cliff l confronts one Where all used to be ver- 1 dure and thick scrub, and through the broken rocks glimpse of the smaller 1 and unused crater now appears, the old knife-edge partition which formerly I divided the two craters having been partially destroyed in the violent paroxysm of the last eruptions. On the | slopes lower down chimneys, cattle pens, boiling houses and negro cabins | can be discerned, sticking an odd stone or rafter or trash roof through the mud 1 where it has been secured away by the torrential rains.
 And yet, amid all this destruction and desolation there are the beginnings ot