VOLCANIC ERUPTION.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 439, 11 June 1902, Page 2

VOLCANIC ERUPTION.

DETAILS BY MAIL STEAMER.

GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS,

AWFUL EXPERIENCES AND MORTALITY.

(Per R.M.S. Ventura, at Auckland.) San Francisco, May 22. Reports of the destruction of St. Pierre reached the outside world on May 9.

The first definite information came from the American Consul at St. Lucia, and was as follows:—The destruction of St. Pierre is complete. The upper end of the island of Martinique is nearly all under ashes. The southern part is safe as far as the destruction of cities goes, but all vegetation was destroyed, and people and stock are perishing for water. The rivers are blacked by ashes ; food is 'scarce, and famine cannot- be escaped. The crater of La Soufriere, on St. Vincent, is in full eruption. The eruption is visible fifty miles away. Steamers report thick ashes two hundred miles away from the island. The loss of life must be enor-

mous, but it is impossible at this time to approach tbo shore. Every effort is being made to reach St. Vincent, but there is great fear that some of those making the effort will be lost.

Forty thousand people perished on Martinique, including the Governor and his wife, and many other notables. The entire population of St. Pierre, and practically all the residents of near-by villages, are among the victims. Ail the shipping in harbor, with the exception of the British steamer Roddarn, was destroyed, with nearly all the crews. The Roddarn has reached here. The captain is badly burned, and all the crow aro either dead or hurt. New craters on the sido of Mount Poles havo opened. Ships passing St. Vincent report that La Soufriere is hidden behind clouds of smoko, sand, and lava. Tlio discharges from it are constant, and come with a flash like heavy artillery. The details, which have not yet ceased to come in, are confirmed, and increase the horror of this disaster. The following is from Fort de France, an island off Martinique, dated May 12 : About thirty thousand peoplo lost their lives on Thursday as the result of the outbreaking of Mount Pelee, at St. Pierre. The commander of the French cruiser Sucket gave the American Consul, Mr Ayme, at Guadeloupe, first news of the disaster the day after it occurred. Mr Ayme has reached the desolate spot where St. Pierre stood, and confirms tho awful story in all essential details. Thursday morning found tho inhabitants of St. Pierre anxiously looking towards the thick clouds shrouding the Mount Pelee crater.

All day on Wednesday horrid detonations had been beard. Theso had -been echoed from St. Thomas, on the north, to Barbadoes, on the south. During the night the night those had ceased, and only fine ashes like rain foil at St. Pierre. The Governor, who was then at Fort de

France, tried to stop the panic the volcanic disturbance had caused.

Ho told the alarmed people that the danger would not increase, and he sent a detachment of soldiers to prevent a general oxodus of the inhabitants. Later he went to St. Pierre, and there perished. A British steamer arrived at St. Piorre some time after, with twelve passengers. They were all watching the rain of ashes, when with a frightful roar and terrifie electric discharge, a cyclone of fire, mud and steam swept down from tho crater, over tho town and bay, destroying the fleet of vessels at anchor off shore. There the stories stop. Twelve survivors only are at the military hospital at Fort de France, while thirty thousand corpses aro stretched about or buried among the ruins of St Pierre, or else floating the prey of sharks in the surrounding seas. Twenty-eight pitifully burned human beings were brought here. Sixteen of them aro already dead, and only four are expected to recover. The Associated Press stoamor, chartered at Quadeloure, reached Martinique at 6.30 on Sunday morning. Tho lofty-hilled island was hidden behind a pure veil of violet and a leaden-hued haze. Enormous quantities of wreckage of ships or buildings were encountered. Huge trees and tho bodies of human beings vvero floating here' and there. From behind the volcanic veil came blasts of hot wind, mingled with othors that were ice-cold. At Le Prechour, five miles north of St. Pierre, men and women in canoes begged piteously to bo rescued. The whole north end of tho Island was covored with a silver grey coating of ashes, resembling dirty snow. Furious blasts of fire, ashes, and mud swept over the steamer. St. Pierre was reached. The city was stretched nearly two miles along the water front, and half a mile back to the cliff at the base of the volcano, tho houses of the richer French families were built of stone. The ruins were still burning in places, and frightful odours filled the air, Not one house was left intact. The streets could hardly be traced. Here and thore were heaps of corpses among the ruins. Almost all the faces were downward. Through the middle of Blace Berlin ran a tiny stream, the remains of the river Gokave. Great trees with roots upward, and scorched by fire, were strewn about. Not a human being was found alive in the town. Not a bird or animal was seen. Jagged walls, the remains of theatres, banks, and the old stone customs house, were found, and the old clock tower still stood, the hands of the clock still pointing to 7.50, the hour when the fire flood descended on the town.

Tbe place seemed unreal. An unnatural darkness enveloped it, due to volcanic dust clouds. A spectral coating of ashes from one to several feot thick covered everything. On the levelled space surrounding the Cathedral of St. Pierre lay hundreds of dead. It was thought that they rushed for the religious edifice, when death came upon them. The Cathedral and Bishop’s Palace were destroyed. Firewood and quicklime were brought from Fort de France. The bodies of the dead were piled in heaps, which were set on fire. Disinfectants were scattered through the streets as fast as the searchers cleared them of bodies. It was impossible to tell whether many had escaped from the tdwflr Hundreds were found at Le Carbet, and at Case and Pilote, villages near the City, over a thousand were handled sinco the eruption from burns and injuries. Not a drop of water could be secured at St. Pierre.

The vaults of the Bank of Martinique were found to be intact. They contained

four hundred thousand dollars in specie, which were brought here for safe keeping. The commander of the Sucket reports that crevices and valleys are constantly

forming in the northern portion of the

island, where the land is in a perpetual state of change. Fortunately that portion of the island was vacated in time by the inhabitants, who fled to Fort de Franco. Lava continues to pour down the mountain, accompanied by terrific thunder and lightning. The dearth of provisions is beginning to be felt throughout the island. The heaps at the disposal of the authorities are inadequate. Communication is practically cut off with the surrounding islands, except by stray vessels which are seized by the inhabitants to escape from Martinique. The Consul’s inspection showed that the stream which so completely destroyed St. Pierre must have been composed of poisonous gases which instantly suffocated everyone who inhaled them, and of other gases burning furiously, for nearly all the victims had their hands covering their mouths, or were in some other attitude showing that they had sought relief from suffocation. All the bodies were carbonised.

A despatch from St. Thomas on May 4 says : As fuller reports of the Martinique disaster arrive the catastrophe grows in horror.

It now appears that the immediate cause of the terrific explosion which blew off the top of Mount Pelee crater was the presence of a large lake in the heart of old craters. The intense and sudden rise in the temperature converted the mass of water into steam, with the result that the whole top of the mountain was torn away,

It is now estimated that the loss of life in Martinique is sixty thousand. Those on a steamer from St. Vincent give a graphic account of the scene. The steamer left St. Vincent hurriedly on Wednesday because of the threatening state of affairs there. A heavy fall of sand from the crater of the voeano there covered the vessel's decks an inch deep. Tho vessel steamed to within a mile of St. Pierre, and those on board witnessed the terrible explosion of Thursday morning. The explosion seemed to lift the top of the mountain right off. At the same time the land heaved and swelled, and a terrible convulsion took place at sea. The waters rose in a huge threatening mass, as though they would engulf every living thing on the ocean. Then a mass of fire descended upon the city, and a pall of smoke covered everything for eight hours. Regarding the disaster at St. Vincent a later despatch was received from Fort do France, dated May 14th, as follows : —- St. Vincent passed through a veritable baptism of fire, aud the results aro only less terrible than thoso which followed the eruption of Mount Pelee, destroying St. Pierre and the environs. La Soufriere has been active for nine days, and the victims are numbered by thousands. A line drawn from Chateau Belaire to George-

town would divide tbo Island of St. Vincent into halves. There is probably no human beiug alive north of it. From St. Sucia the eruption of La Soufriere was visible during the night of May 7th. Tbo following night the steamship Wear, of tbo Royal Mail Service, in attempting to forco her way to Kingstown, ran into a floating bank of ashes. For three hours the ship was practically helpless, in a cloud of smoke and sulphurous ashes denser than that which floated down from Mount Peleo. When Kingstown was finally reached at daybreak it was found .to be panic-stricken. The streets wero covered two inches deep with ashes and stones that had fallen during tho night. Kingstown is fifteen miles from the crater which ejected, yet the rain of missiles was

almost incessant for three days. From Chateau Belaire word came that the distress there was groat. A call had been sent for a clergyman, and one was taken by the Wear.

Down the sides of La Soufriere wore flowing hundreds of streams of lava, which, united and separated, formed a network from which there was no escape for any living thing caught within its grasp. Already one thousand bodies have been recovered, and it is known that many hundred lie buried under the ashes. The Carib Indians are exterminated, and it is bolieved that two thousand lives have gone out. The following cablegrams vividly describe the present terrible condition of the stricken islands which so recently presented perfect picture of an earthly paradise : Fort de France, Island of Martinique, May 20.—Mount Pelee is in active eruption, its outburst exceeding that which caused tbo ruin of St Pierre. The display is awful in its grandeur. A severe inundation at Basse Point, on the north-east coast of this island, at 2 o’clock this morning, swept away twenty houses, and fifty other buildings were damaged by tho flowing mud which has swept over Valle do, la Riviere. There was no further loss of life, Basse Point having been abandoned several days ago. Access to the runs of St Pierre is still impossible.