Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-05-19
TO LIVE ON PELEE.
Prof Hovey Wishes to Learn II the
Volcano Is Extinct.

| volcano is CStIlSt'
| Risking their lives In the interests
of science and their fellow men and
women, Prof. Hovey of the American
Geographical society and his wife are
about to take up their residence on
the slope of Mont Pelee, the most
deadly volcano of modern times.
One morning. less than six years
ago, Pelee blew its head off, Five
minutes later its toll of dead was
more than SO,OOO-probably 10000.
The city of st. Pierre was over
whelmed. It's buildings were first
swept down by a tornado of heated
air and gas, then burned by explosions
and the molten rocks that rained
upon them, then given a final burial
beneath lava, mud and dust.
A few survived-a score who hap
pened to be in building protected
from the first terrible blast by pro-
jecting ridge Of the mountain; another
score who were on ships in the har-
Dor and recovered from their terrible
craft to another port, and a lone pris-
oner in a dungeon, whose thick walls
saved him. They were a pitiful few,
those saved in the city.
Some thousands of those living in
the surrounding country made their
way to Fort de France, at the other
side of the island of Martinique. A
remnant, fatalists or believers that
what had happened could not happen
again, remained in the vicinity Of the
ruined city, and several hundreds of
these met death in another violent
eruption three months after the first
disaster.
Then st. Pierre became deserted
vast graveyard. No more came
ships in great numbers to her harbor.
Captains gave the place Il wide berth.
The natives reaSsembled on the other
side of the island, crying that God had
punished st. Pierre for its immOrali-
ty. The mountain sputtered and belch-
ed, and gradually subsided its remon-
strations, until they became little
more than grumblings. At the time
Of the San Francisco earthquake SYM
pathetic symptoms were noted on
Martinique and st. Vincent-earth-
quakes of great violence and eruptions
of minor seriousness. Then they
paused until last August, when there
were heavy tremors.
1t became the general belief that
never again would st. Pierre become
a permanent abode Of men. The les
son seemed to have been violent
enough. Natives and foreigners alike,
| it seemed, would keep as far away
as possible from the treacherous
mountain which had taken such ter
rible toll.
Within a year after Vesuvius last
hurled lava down its slopes, the peas
ants who had fled in terror returned
for the pruning of the vineyards on
the hillside. So although after a
longer interval, because the disaster
was greater, the peasants of the is
land of Martinique are beginning to
return to the site of st. Pierre and the
surrounding country, and to resume
life as though Mont Pelee had never
demonstrated it's power of death.
1T will not happen again." they are
already saying, these leisurely chill
dren of the tropics. "At least, never
in our time
Scientists are not at all sure that it
will not happen again. So far as they
know Of volcanoes, they know that
the volcano that has once been dead
ly is likely to be deadly again, even
though hundreds or perhaps thous-
ands of years may elapse between out
bursts. 1t is a distinct theory among
many students that volcanoes break
out periodically, and that there is a
definite way of timing those periods,
if continuous scientific research could
only cover a sufficient number Of
years to get the necessary data.
In the late part of the eighteenth
and early part of the nineteenth GEN.
turies, Mont Pelee was recognized
volcano, but was classed as extinct"
This phrase, once believed to mean a
volcano which would never again
break into eruption, has now come to
mean merely one which has not brok-
en- into eruption, nor given any signs
of activity, for a great many years.
Scientists now recognize that every
extinct" volcano listed on the maps
may break out again.
The question now asked by that
part of the world interested scientif-
ically in volcanoes is: Does the sub
sidence of the eruptions mean that
the mountain is sinking into another
period Of lethargy, which may last for
hundreds Of years, even as the last
period did, or is power accommodating
beneath Mont Pelee's crater which, in
a short time a few months, a few
years, a century-will break forth,
bringing death and destruction
again?''
If Pelee is moribund, there are good
reasons why mankind should return
to take up an abode beneath its
frowning slopes-at least, such por-
ton of mankind as is willing to take
the chance of an improbable eruption
or serious earthquake. st. Pierre is
an unusually good spot for a tropical
island city. 1t has a good harbor.
There are commercial reasons for the
city's resurrection. But if Pelee is
merely resting-if next month, next
year or the next few years is probab-
~ to see a repetition of the disaster Of
May 8, 1902!
Now the only place to study the
workings of a volcano is a very dan
gerOus place-upOn the mountains
very slopes, as near as may be to the
crater itself. Newspaper readers the
world over are familiar with the story
of that savant who lives on the slopes
of Vesuvius as if to study the mon
ster's thoughts, and who calmly con-
tinued his Investigations and records