that the earthquake was sent in punishment of the sacrilege that had been committed in allowing the performer to tie one end of his rope to the church tower. A series of earthquake shocks were reported from Guatemala on April 8, and on the night of the 18th they were of such severity that they were BROKEN STATUE IN CHILPANCINGO, MEXICO. recorded by the seismograph in the Isle of Wight, and might have been recorded in any part of the world. It appears that on this night the Cordilleras of Central America were relieved of their seismic strain; villages and towns were shattered and earthquake waves passed over the world, and other unusual phenomena were recorded. On April 23 Mont Pelée showed a plume of smoke, and on May 3 it showed a fiery glow at night from the incandescent lava within its crater. There were low rumblings in the neigh boring island of St. Vincent, and its long-extinct volcano, La Soufrière, began its eruptions two days later. On May 8 a geyser or boiling lake in Dominica, about 300 feet in length by 200 in breadth, disappeared completely. About the same time it was reported from Tacoma that Mount Redoubt, Cook inlet, in the State of Washington, was pouring forth dense volumes of smoke, and that it had become luminous in the night. Volcanic ashes fell, and snow near the mountain was covered with ashes. The last eruption of Mount Redoubt occurred in 1867. On May 31 earthquake shocks were felt in various parts of Greece. Lack of available means of transit comparatively shuts off Guatemala from the rest of the world, and it was not till about the time the world was horrified with the news of the eruption of Mont Pelée and the wiping out of the city of St. Pierre, as also that of La Soufrière, that definite news came from the Central American republic that its second largest and richest city, Quezaltenango, had been completely destroyed by an earthquake, undoubtedly the one that had been recorded on the Isle of Wight in the night of April 18. Quezaltenango was a well-constructed city of many imposing edifices of lime and stone construction, with an estimated population of 25,000 to 30,000 inhabitants. It is supposed by some to have been built within the crater of an extinct volcano, but, this is doubtful, the belief having originated from the fact that it is surrounded by high, jagged mountain peaks at an elevation of 8,000 feet above the sea. The only reliable account of the seismic disturbances that shook the Cordilleras and finally destroyed this city appears in a communication from Edwin Rockstroh, a German for a long time in the employ of the Guatemala Government as an engineer. He says that at 8.25 P. M., April 18, an earthquake of more than thirty seconds' duration affected a large part of Guatemala, eastern Chiapas, and western Salvador and Honduras. The intensity of the movement was greatest in western Guatemala, where the second and richest city of the country was completely destroyed, with the loss of about 500 lives. The cities of Sololá, San Marcos, and its sister town, San Pedro Sacatepequez, were also completely ruined, with a loss of more than 200 lives. Retaluheu and Mazatenango, important towns on the Pacific coast plain to the south of Quezaltenango were also ruined. The cities that were most violently shaken were those on the highlands a little north of the great volcanoes that rise in the vicinity of Quezaltenango. Besides the cities named, nearly every town and hamlet in the Department of San Marcos, Quezaltenango, Retalhueleu, and Suchitepequez, and several in Chimaltenango, suffered, and nearly every one of the many important coffee and sugar plantations in the western coast regions had its buildings, aqueducts, and machinery shattered. At the port of Ocos only 3 houses remained standing, and the pier extending into the sea was broken in two. Later it was reported that Ocos was sinking beneath the sea. The railways between Retalhueleu and the port of Champerico, and the one between Ocos and Coatepec, were interrupted by the falling of bridges and other damage. Until May 5 earthquakes were frequent, extending from Gualan, near the Atlantic coast, to the west, near the Pacific. It was on the night of May 3 when Mont Pelée began to throw large quantities of scoriæ and volcanic ash into the surrounding country, and on May 5, two days later, a stream of lava rushed down the mountainside, reaching the sea, 5 miles distant, in three minutes, it is said. When the red-hot stream met the sea the water receded 300 feet on the west coast of the island, returning with great force. Two days later, May 7, a hot blast from the volcano engulfed the town of St. Pierre, destroying everything. Almost simultaneously with the outbreak of the Martinique volcano occurred that of La Soufrière, in St. Vincent. Forming the arc of a circle, roughly speaking, a string of islands extends around the western border of the Caribbean Sea, from Porto Rico to a point near the continent of South America. The group begins with Saba on the north, and ends with Grenada on the south, near the large island of Trinidad. In this group lie the islands of Martinique and St. Vincent. The islands appear from the sea like mountain peaks, and geologists tell us that they are merely ancient ashheaps over which time has weathered a soil and moisture has nursed a luxuriant tropical vegetation. On all of the larger ones there are evidences of their volcanic origin in the form of craters and boiling springs; but, with the exception of St. Vincent, none of them seemed to have suffered from any severe eruptions since they were discovered four hundred years ago; and to such an extent did the inhabitants of Martinique consider themselves as enjoying immunity from such disturbances that they spoke of Mont Pelée, which overshadowed them at a height of 4,428 feet, as an extinct volcano. St. Vincent's volcano, La Soufrière, erupted in 1812, and Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, was destroyed about the same time, when the entire city was shaken down and 10,000 people lost their lives. This fact merits attention because about three months previously to the recent eruption of La Soufrière Caracas and the country about it suffered from considerable seismic perturbation. In both instances the disturbances in the northern part of Venezuela preceded the eruption of the St. Vincent volcano. La Soufrière mountain rises to an altitude of 3,500 feet. Previously to the recent eruption it had two craters, known as the old and the new. The first was 3 miles in circumference and 500 feet deep, and was separated from that which was known as the new crater, formed in 1812, by a ridge of igneous material. This crater was half a mile in diameter, with a beautiful lake at the bottom, walled in by rocky cliffs to a height of 800 feet, covered with verdure, and fringed over the top with a growth of dense forest. that volcanic dust from the volcano had been falling all over the island in great quantities. Orders were immediately cabled by the British Government to the cruiser Indefatigable at Trinidad to go at once to the relief of St. Vincent. A subsequent cablegram from Barbados reported the continued rumbling sound resembling artillery fire in the direction of St. Vincent, and at 5 P. M. darkness set in, with thunder and a downpour of dust. It was also reported from Pointe à Pitre, Guadeloupe, that La Soufrière had been in a state of eruption for nine consecutive mornings. The Secretary of the Navy cabled from Washington to Capt. McLain, of the cruiser Cincinnati, at Santo Domingo city, to go with the utmost haste to Martinique and render such assistance as was possible, and at the same time he ordered the commander of the Brooklyn NavyYard to prepare the Dixie for sea as soon as possible. The State Department ordered Consul Aymé, at Guadeloupe, to go to the scene of the great disaster to report thereon, and inform the United States of the help needed. A definite report was received from St. Vincent on May 11, which said that on the 5th a loud explosion was heard proceeding from La Soufrière crater, and that the water forming the lake within ascended in a stupendous cloud of steam and exploded high in the heavens. Explosions and noises continued till May 7, when the old crater, 3 miles in circumference, and the new crater, both belched forth smoke and stones, forcing the inhabitants of Wallabou and Richmond valley, beneath the volcano, to fly to Chateau Belair for refuge. At midday the craters ejected enormous columns of steaming vapor, which, rising 8 miles high, expanded in the form of huge cauliflowers through which flashed streaks of fire resembling lightning. Later the mountain rid itself of a mass of molten lava, which flowed over its sides. forming 6 red-hot streams down its slopes. About 2,000 lives were reported lost, whole families were exterminated, and the bodies were left unburied. The United States took the lead among nations in helping France in the work of rescue and relief of her unfortunate citizens, and both the executive and the legislative department of the Government prepared for the work. A resolution passed the Senate on Saturday, May 10, under The first news of the outburst of either of these island volcanoes to reach the United States was a despatch of May from St. Thomas, W. I. On the same day severe earthquake shocks were reported from Spain at Barcelona, Saragossa, Irun, Tafalla, and Murcia. At the last-named place the cathedral, a convent, and several houses suffered damage. At Alberique, in Valencia, houses were destroyed and a school-building and a church suffered severe damages. The disturbances dislodged great masses of rock in the Fuen-Santa mountains, and similar shocks were reported from Bordeaux, Bayonne, Pau, and other places in that region. On May 9 the London Times published a despatch from the West Indies saying that the Martinique volcano had destroyed St. Pierre on the day previous, and that the steamer Roddam had returned to St. Lucia at 5 P. M. from that city, almost a total wreck from fire, with 17 of her crew dead and the survivors badly burned. The captain reported that he had barely been able to make his escape from the harbor of St. Pierre, and that the Quebec steamer Roraima was lost with all the crew in the harbor, with the rest of the shipping. May 10 a fuller report was given of the terrible disaster. The French cruiser Sachet attempted to make a landing at St. Pierre, but was forced to desist, owing to the terrible heat. The crew reported dead bodies lying all about the wharves and shore, and 30 survivors. more or less burned, were picked up from the sunken vessels in the harbor. Consul L. H. Aymé reported to the State Department from Guadeloupe that 18 vessels were burned and sunk, including 4 American vessels and the steamer Roraima. Among those lost was the cable-repair steamer Grappler. The Roddam carried the first news of the disaster to St. Lucia, whence the outside world was informed, the cable from Martinique having been interrupted since Sunday, May 4. The Colonial Office at London received a despatch dated May 8, announcing the outbreak of the St. Vincent volcano, La Soufrière, from the Governor of the Windward Islands, then at suspension of the rules, providing for an approKingston. A later despatch from St. Lucia an- priation of $100,000 for the relief of the citizens nounced that cable communication was broken of the French West Indies, and authorizing the off with St. Vincent, and a despatch from Bridge- President to purchase provisions, clothing, meditown, Barbados, more than 100 miles away to the cines, and other supplies and to tender them east, said that loud reports like cannonading had in the name of the United States Government to been heard in the direction of St. Vincent, and the French Government for the relief of the af RUINED CHURCH IN CHILPANCINGO, MEXICO. A WEALTHY CITIZEN'S RESIDENCE, QUEZALTENANGO, GUATEMALA, RUINED BY THE EARTHQUAKE. ferred to the Committee on Appropriations; but when the President informed Congress on the following Monday in a special message that the French Government had asked for relief, and urging immediate action, also recommending that the appropriation be increased to $500,000, the House increased the Senate appropriation by $100,000 (on May 12). The War Department at once ordered the Dixie to load the necessary stores, and by direction of the President, Secretary Hay cabled Ambassador Choate at London to express to the British Government the sympathy of the President and the people of the United States in the affliction that had befallen the island of St. Vincent, and our desire to share in the work of relief and rescue. The Dixie sailed from Brooklyn in the night of May 14, at 9 o'clock, bearing the relief expedition to the unfortunate islands, including a special scientific expedition to investigate the regions of the disturbances under the auspices of the National Geographical Society. Its members consisted of Prof. Robert T. Hill, of the Geological Survey; Prof. Israel C. Russell, Professor of Geology in the University of Michigan: Comd. C. E. Borchgrevink, antarctic explorer; Dr. T. A. Jaggar, of Harvard University; Mr. G. C. Curtis, of Cambridge; and Dr. Angelo Heilprin, president of the Philadelphia Geographical Society. This was one of the most important and best equipped expeditions ever sent out to study volcanic action. Fort de France, Martinique, on the morning of May 21, and while the explorers proceeded to St. Pierre in a smaller boat she unloaded a part of her supplies. A desolate scene met the gaze of those who debarked among the ruin and piled-up débris and volcanic ash on what was once the beautiful city of St. Pierre. There was not a person in sight or a living thing among all this ruin, except where a squad of French soldiers were busy far up the slope piling up the dead to be cremated. Prof. Russell estimated that about 20 square miles had been devastated on the western slope of Mont Pelée, and in all that space not a living thing was left. Fire followed the hurricane of hot vapor, and a rain of rock dust buried what the fire left uncovered. Never in the history of man had such complete destruction been wrought on an area of equal size. As to the precise nature of the blast that destroyed the city, the opinions of the commission seem to differ. Prof. Russell favors the opinion that the general cause of death was a blast of steam charged with hot dust. The people on the border of the devastated area who escaped, and who in some instances were injured, suffered from burns inflicted by hot dust that adhered to the skin. Witnesses who were on the Roddam in front of St. Pierre at the time of the disaster say that when the eruption occurred the vessel was struck with such force by the material ejected that she was nearly capsized, and at the same time she seemed to be enveloped |