THE ERUPTION OF PELÉE
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excoriating of the lining of the t h r o a t and bronchi and the filling in of the lungcells. I t was like breathing a furnace-fire, especially where the blast was charged with burning m a t t e r . Professor Lacroix accepts the same interpretation of the destroying force t h a t wrecked Morne Rouge as the one to which I h a v e been led as regards AjoupaBouillon, Morne Balai and Morne Capot: " I t is not doubtful t h a t the de d u c t i o n was due to the action of a cloud of aqueous vapor highly charged with hot ashes. There is no reason to seek for a combustible gas; the trees are not burned and the palms from which the leaves have not been forcibly torn show these to be simply dried o u t " (Comptes Rendus, October 27, 1902, p. 672). I t is not difficult to apply this lesson of the later erup tion of Pelée to the special conditions of the Saint-Pierre catastrophe. With a tornadic blast of the character of, b u t more powerful than, t h a t which destroyed the five or more towns and villages on August 30, it is easy to assume the destruction of the city, although the swiftness and completeness of this destruction will always appear surprising. We may, perhaps, as sume as a factor in this complete destruction the propagation of a number of serially and rapidly following explosions—such as Bunsen, Dixon and others have shown to exist in an ordinarily exploding gas-cloud.* These would surely greatly multiply the force of the exploding or initial cloud. Sekiya and Kiku chi, discussing the Bandai-San eruption (Journal of the College of Science, I I I , 1890) properly remark t h a t " t h e tremendous explosions of steam at quick in tervals, lasting for about a minute, produced violent disturbances of the air, consequent upon the sudden radial expansion of the liberated volumes of steam . . . The eruption of Bandai-San m a y be aptly compared to the firing of a tremendous gun—such a one, however, as can only be forged b y n a t u r e . " These authors also refer the immediate cause of the eruptions to " t h e sudden expansion of steam p e n t u p within the mountain." There were no discharges following the first explosion. While recognizing the efficiency of the hot steam blast in bringing about the destruction of Saint-Pierre and its inhabitants, the absolute annihilation wrought has always appeared to m e a puzzling feature as regards the work of steam alone, and while it m a y be admitted t h a t the overthrow of the city was due virtually to this one cause, it seems not unlikely t h a t the destruction of h u m a n life—not considering here the effects of conflagration and of fall ing walls and boulders—was bound u p with accessory conditions, some of which m a y never be known to us. W i t h regard to the possible coöperation of asphyxiating gases, and as bearing upon m y first-expressed view, it is interesting to note t h a t M. Moissan, who has made a close study of the fumarole gases of Pelée, finds the quantity of carbon oxyd so large (1.6 per cent, or more) as to warrant the assumption t h a t it must have been pres* See t h e paper b y H a r o l d B. D i x o n : " O n t h e Movements of t h e F l a m e in the Explosion of Gases." Proceedings Royal Society of London, L X X , September 20, 1902, pp. 471 et seq.