The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1924-01-09

| prepared by thu National Geographic So
| cisty. Washington. D. c.
For denseness Of population though
turns first to China, Java and Bel
GUM; but Martinique, French island
Of the West Indies, Is an able Ameri
can contestant to join the list, for Il
is one of the most crowded lands Of
the world. On its $50 square miles
live close to a quarter of million
people, more than $40 to the square
mile. 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 1t
out more than once and has shone
upon 1t with brightness that has
compelled attention. What other little
patch Of distant land may be said to
have furnished to Europe a 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 1.-THE
quaintest, queerest and prettiest' city
of the West Indies. It was truly
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
been rebuilt and probably never will
be, and though Its loss was heavy
blow, the island has gone on develop
Ing and prospecting to greater
degree, even, than some Of its
neighbors under other flags. Where
It's population at the time of the de-
struction of st. Pierre was near $780,
300 it Is now over 244.00O. And the
value of the annual produce today Is
much greater than that in 1902.
What the Island 10 Like.
Martinique lies midway in the
roughly north-and-south string of Lee
ward and Windward islands that to-
yether make up the Lesser Antilles or
Jaribbees. Like It's immediate neigh
,ors, 1t Is rough and smothered,
where man has not kept 1t clear, by a
lot of vegetation, an ocean Of verdure
hat shows forth every conceivable
hade of green. The eastern or At
antic side Is continually under bonn
'ardment by heavy surf and there
5 little chance for commerce on that
hore. The western or Caribbean
ide, however, Is more sheltered and
t is there on the great almost land
ocked bay that fs situated Fort de
rance, the capital and, since the de-
tructlon of ST. Pierre, the chief city
nd port of the island. Some twenty
1iles up the coast Is the site of st.
'ierre with Pelse and its torn top
lsing beyond.
The lives Of St. Plerre's 10000 in
abitants were snuffed out almost in
moment when a great wave of ex- {
loding, burning gases rolled down {
pom 1t from the volcano. Huge mud I
ows, too, came from the crater to the $
orth of the city and devastation was |
eneral in almost the whole Of the | |
orthern quarter of the island. I
No effort to rebuild the lost city
as considered practicable, and the
Inns, stirring the emotions of all who
ehold them, have remained much as c
lie great catastrophe left them save a
lat nature has covered them with her &
lexorable tropic growths. Care plan 2
ltions and villages have edged IN to- O
ard the old city, though rather char d
y; and there is still much of the re- I
ON In the vicinity Of the dreaded
oy>o <hof 20 ahon60Nod | -
A little over two miles south of the t
d city site. along the coast, Is the
earest village, Carbet. 1t was part n
destroyed BY the smuggling heat Of
y blast that devastated St. Pierre,