THE
ERUPTION
OF
PELÉE
7
1902, and during previous days, was the basin of the Étang Sec; therefore the caldron on whose base is now implanted the great dome. I t is also equally certain t h a t the real opening of this basin was on April 25, when a heavy ash- and steam-cloud was seen to issue from it; b u t it can hardly be doubted t h a t a minor eruptivity, beyond the simple emission of sulphurous and aqueous vapors, m a y have existed before this time. Nothing is known of the size or characteristics of the constructing cone—the predecessor of the later dome—when the eruption took place; and therefore the allocation of the destroying blast to a definite point in the basin, whether to its absolute floor or to the opening in a rising cone, remains speculative in value. I n associating the later activity of Pelée with parts of the volcano t h a t were concerned in the eruption fifty-one years earlier, we have as a basis for study and comparison only the report of the Scientific Commission of 1851, MM. Leprieur, Peyraud and Rufz. From this report it is made clear t h a t none of the vents of the later eruption had p a r t in the earlier one, which in itself appears to have been hardly more t h a n a warning, with a localized area of destruction immediately about the explosive points. There were at the time of the investigation of the commission three active craterlets, two situated at an elevation, as determined barometrically, of 883 metres, and the third, which was seemingly the largest, although measuring only one and a half metres across, situated some distance farther down the slope. This is thought to have been the seat of the ancient Soufrière.* The position bore directly east of Prêcheur, from which it was distant seven kilometres in a direct line. The vent nearest to Saint-Pierre was distant ten kilometres from t h a t city. These several openings, which were found in a condition of semi-activity on August 9, were located in a ravine of the Rivière Claire, a northwestern or right-hand tributary of the Rivière Blanche, and at positions which can probably no longer be identified. The commission did not consider them to be active points of the main eruption, b u t assumed for these a considerable number of other craterlets lying in an adjacent valley, and a t positions whose general or medial elevation above the sea is placed at 816 metres. These were found to be all dormant. T h a t none of the several points of activity or past-activity t h a t are here referred to are in any way identifiable with the Étang Sec (the focus of the recent outburst)—a correspondence which has generally and not unnaturally been assumed—is thus plainly indicated b y the geographical position outside of the actual basin of the Rivière Blanche, and in the further narrative of Leprieur and Peyraud (p. 16), which states t h a t these investigators visited the old lake-basin for the purpose of making additional observations on w h a t was assumed to be another and still more ancient crater of the volcano ("Sans visiter I'Étang Sec qui passe pour un autre cratère plus ancien du volcan "). This is, *"Mais nous voulions visiter encore un troisième cratère que nous voyions fumer aussi a quelques centaines de mètres plus bas dans la même ravine, et qu'on nous disait avoir pour siège l'ancienne Soufrière." " É r u p t i o n du Volcan de la Montagne P e l é e , " p. 9.