can scientists say that those eruptions have no parallel in history, and the electrical and gaseous phenomena make them unique—these and a hundred other similar statements have absolutely no foundation in fact, while other most interesting details have passed unnoticed. The fault,
Fig. 1. St. Pierre; showing the American Consulate and the Cathedral as they were before the eruption.
however, does not rest with the correspondent; it rests with those at home who 'cook up' cable despatches, and with those living in the islands whose nerves are gone and who are thereby in an overimaginative frame of mind. Thus while I was occupying a beautiful little villa under the leeward slopes of Soufrière, a small thunderstorm broke about
Fig. 2. St. Pierre: The Same General View after the Eruption of May 8, 1902.
midnight over the mountain—thunderstorms occurred nearly every day. It was described next day as follows in the local paper: