Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1924-01-02

prepared by the National Geographic So
cfety, Washington, D. Co.
For denseness of population thought
turns first to China, Java and Bel
. GUM; but Martinique, French island
or the West Indies, is an able Ameri-
can contestant to join the list for it
Is one of the most crowded lands of
the world. On its $50 square miles
i've close to quarter of a million
people, more than $40 to the square
Olle And a great many of Mar
tinique'S square miles are covered by
rough mountains and dense, virgin
jungle, so that on the cultivated low
lands the crowding is much greater
than the figures for the whole island
indicate.
Here is an island not inconsiderable
In size, crowded, fairly prosperous,
which somehow has almost been over
looked by the world in late years. Yet
the spotlight of history has singled it
out more than once and has shone
upon it with a brightness that has
compelled attention. What other little
patch Of distant land may be said to
have furnished to Europe woman
who was more than a queen, a queen
and an empress. Marquise de Main
tenon was the daughter of Martinique
who was all but queen; and the is
lands legitimate contribution to royal
ty was through its beloved Josephine,
herself the empress of the first Ma
poleon, as well as mother of the queen
Of Holland and grandmother of the
third Napoleon.
A great tragedy Of nature turned
the latest spotlight on Martinique
when Mount Pelee exploded in 1902
In one of the most destructive volcanic
eruptions Of modern times and wiped
out of existence the thriving city of
st. Pierre, creating Americas Pompeii
st. Pierre has been described as "the
qualntest, queerest and prettiest'' city
of the West Indies. It was truly a
charming city and the undoubted
favorite port Of call to all Caribbean
sailors. To the world at large St
Pierre was Martinique; and when this
delightful place was overwhelmed the
fiction was somehow built up that
Martinique itself was irrevocably Grip
pied.
But though st. Pierre has never
be, and though its loss was a heavy
blow, the island has gone on develop
ing and prospecting to greater
degree, even, than some of its
peighbors under other flags. Where
its population at the time of the de-
struction of st. Pierre was near 190,-
600 it is now over 244,00Q. And the
value Of the annual produce today is
much greater than that in 1902.
What the Island Is Like.
Martinique lies midway in the
roughly north-and-south string of Lee
ward and Windward islands that to-
gether make up the Lesser Antilles or
Caribbees. Like it's immediate neigh
bors, it is rough and smothered,
where man has not kept it clear, by
riot of vegetation, an ocean of verdure
that shows forth every conceivable
shade of green. The eastern or At
lantic side is continually under bonn
bardment by a heavy surf and there
Is little chance for commerce on that
shore. The western or Caribbean
side, however, is more sheltered and
1t is there on the great almost land
locked bay that Is situated Fort de
France, the capital, and, since the de-
struction of st. Pierre, the chief city
and port of the island. Some twenty
miles up the coast is the site of st.
Pierre with Pelee and its torn top
rising Beyond
The lives Of st. Pierre's 10000 in
habitants were snuffed out almost in
a moment when a great wave of ex-
ploding, burning gases rolled down
upon it from the volcano. Huge mud
flows, too, came from the crater to the
north of the city and devastation was
general In almost the whole of the
northern quarter of the island.
No effort to rebuild the lost city
was considered practicable, and the
rsins, stirring the emotions of all who
behold them, have remained much as
the great catastrophe left them save
that nature has covered them with her
memorable tropic growths. Cane plan
tations and villages have edged in to-
ward the old city, though rather char
fly: and there is still much of the re-
gion in the vicinity Of the dreaded
Pelee that is abandoned.
A little over two miles south of the
old city site, along the coast, is the
nearest village. Carbet. 1t was part
ly destroyed by the singeing heat Of
the blast that devastated st. Pierre,