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PROFESSOR HEILPRIN ON MONT PELÉE.

TH

HERE recently returned from Martinique a party of scientists, artists, and newspaper men, who had hastened to the site of St. Pierre almost as soon as the news of the catastrophe was made known. One of these was Prof. Angelo Heilprin, who has for twenty years been identified with the scientific institutions of Philadelphia. Professor Heilprin writes in the August. McClure's of his observation on Mont Pelée, and of the deductions he has drawn from these observations as to the original cause of the great volcanic upheaval.

Professor Heilprin was the first man to ascend the volcano after the great catastrophe. On May 31, he went up the crater to an altitude of about 4,000 feet. He found that the old crater had not been blown out, as was reported. The next day Professor Heilprin made another ascent to the same crater, accompanied by Messrs. Kennan, Jaccaci, and the artist George Varian, who contributes the pictures which illustrate this article. The party arrived at an elevation of 4,025 feet. They found the temperature to be, two or three inches below the surface, 124° to 130°, and at a somewhat greater depth 162°. Puffs of steam were issuing from a number of vents, and from beneath great bowlder masses, whose heated surfaces were scarred with sulphur blotches.

THE VIEW INTO THE CRATER.

a lifting of the

"We waited patiently for clouds, and it came at last. A sudden gust cleared the summit, and sunlight illuminated the near horizon. We dashed to the line above which welled out the huge steam cloud of the volcano, and in a few instants stood upon the rim of the giant rift in whose interior the world was being re-made in miniature.

We were four feet, perhaps less, from a point whence a plummet could be dropped into the seething furnace. Momentary flashes of light permitted us to peer deep into the tempest-tossed caldron, but at no time could we see its floor, for over it roiled the vapors that rose out to mountain heights. Opposite us, at a distance of per haps 200 feet or more, across the thin steam vapor, trembled the walls of the other face of the crater. Halfway between rose the central core of the burned-out cinder masses, topped by enormous white rocks, whose brilliant incandescence flashed out the beacon lights which were observed from the sea some days after the fatal 8th, and even at our later day illumined the night-crown of the volcano with a glow of fire. From the interior came deep rumbling detonations, the clinking of falling and sliding cinders, the hissing of the emerging steam, and other

sounds which were too feebly defined to be described. We felt no inconvenience from either

gas or steam.

"We found that we were standing on an overhang, and therefore dared not tarry beyond the time needed to make observations. I attempted to locate the axis of the vent as nearly as the direction of its largely obscured walls and the position of the basin of Lac des Palmistes permitted. I found it to be N.-S., slightly S. W. The magnetic needle, which the day before showed a marked deflection, was nearly normal. The form of the crater is that of a caldron, pitching steeply downward toward the Caribbean, and opening in a direction a little west of the line to St. Pierre. At no time could we positively ascertain the extreme boundaries. Its length must have been 500 feet; it may have been much more. There can be no question that at the downward side of the crater the rift traverses the position of the narrow rift known as the Fente, or the Terre Fendue, which had been a feature of the mountain since the eruption of 1851, and perhaps existed long before that event.

"Any statement regarding the depth of the crater must for the time remain conjectural. I should say that it could hardly be less than from 200 to 250 feet; it might be very much more.

WHAT CAUSED THE ERUPTION OF MAY 8?

Professor Heilprin says that the death-dealing eruption of May 8 was from the lower crater. He proves that the description of the catastrophe which spoke of moving sheets of flame were erroneous. Instead, there was a luminous, or incandescent, cloud which may easily in that terrible time have given the impression of flame.

This glowing cloud, Professor Heilprin says, was composed of one of the heavier carbonic gases brought under pressure to a condition of extreme incandescence and whose liberation in contact with the oxygen in the atmosphere, assisted by electric discharges, wrought this explosion, or series of explosions, that developed the catastrophe."

The great cloud of incandescent vapor undoubtedly produced a tornado, and Professor Heilprin found evidence of storm paths lying across the city's ruins. He also considers it certain that electric explosions had their share in the phenomena.

THE ORIGIN OF THE CARBONIC GAS.

To the inquiry as to what was the source of this carbon gas,-to my mind the main factor of the catastrophe, -the geologist points to those vast bituminous deposits, like those of Venezuela and the island of Trinidad, which lie but little out

of the line of the connected series of volcanoes, of which the Soufrière of St. Vincent and Pelée of Martinique are a part. He also points to the limestone deposits, with their enormous masses of locked-up carbon, forming the foundation upon which these same volcanoes are implanted, which indicate a source of energy far greater than was required for the catastrophe of Pelée. Though

no one could have foretold the cataclysm long in advance of its coming, the episode, except in its magnitude and terrible consequences, is no sur prise to the geologist, who knows this region to be in an area of extreme weakness in the earth's crust. This region of terrestrial instability includes the greater part of the Caribbean and Gulf basins, and defines in its eastern contour the line of disappearance and breakage of the South American Andes, whose sunken crest is the pedi· ment of the lesser Antilles. What great dis. turbances, if any, have taken place in the sea bottom as the result of the recent occurrences is a question that will take time to determine; but there is evidence already that some change has taken place west of Martinique, between the depth of 1,500 and 2,000 fathoms.

The erup

tions of Colima in Mexico, the earthquakes that so recently destroyed the towns of Chilpancingo in Mexico and Quetzaltenango in Guatemala, the minor disturbances in Nicaragua, are but phases of the phenomena which culminated so disas trously in the explosions of the Soufrière of St. Vincent and Mont Pelée of Martinique."

WHAT CAUSED THE DEATHS AT ST. PIERRE ?

FOR

ORTUNATELY for the cause of science, several unusually competent investigators. were able to visit Martinique and St. Vincent before the volcanic eruptions of May had ceased, and their observations have already been reported in detail. The full report of the representatives of the National Geographic Society appears in the July number of the National Geographic Magazine. This report, which was prepared by Dr. Robert T. Hill, of the United States Geological Survey, is interesting not only as a presentation of facts regarding the great catastrophe, but also for the theories that it suggests to account for the enormous fatality at St. Pierre.

Dr. Hill states two such theories, one or the other of which may ultimately be adopted:

1. The heat-blast theory. This hypothesis assumed that the lapilli, gases, and steam of the ejected cloud were sufficiently hot to have inflamed the city and destroyed the people by singeing, suffocation, and asphyxiation. It does not account for the forces exerted radially and horizontally, nor the flame.

2. The aerial-explosion theory. The explosion of gases within the erupted cloud after their projection into the air would account for all the phenomena observed.

"The aerial explosion, if it occurred, was most probably a combustible gas, but science is still unable to state its nature. The discussion of explosive gases involves a line of scientific specialization which the writer does not possess; but as sudden and mysterious as was the great secret, it has left its traces and clues which the detectives of science will follow up. Metal surfaces of objects in the ruins will be examined and analyzed for traces of sulphur and chlorides. The deposits from the numerous steaming fumaroles are already within the chemical laboratory. Even the ash and rocks of the island will be submitted to minute investigation.

"And then there were those frightful lightning bolts! What of them and their igniting power?"

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THOUSANDS KILLED BY STEAM AND DUST.

My

Prof. Israel C. Russell, another geologist who represented the Geographic Society in Martinique, says regarding the nature of the blast which swept over St. Pierre from Mont Pelée : It has been stated in the newspapers that the inhabitants of St. Pierre were asphyxiated by noxious gases or killed by a gas explosion. own observations and the best interpretation I can place upon the testimony of surviving witnesses favors the opinion that the general cause of death was a blast of steam charged with hot dust. Gases, probably in part inflammable, were no doubt present, as the odor of sulphurous acid was perceptible at the time of my visit; but the part that such gases played was seemingly secondary. In order to be able to judge of the conditions where everything was destroyed, it is necessary to learn what took place on the outskirts of the storm. The people on the borders of the devastated area who escaped were in some instances injured, and the injuries were inflicted by hot dust, which on touching the skin adhered and burned. These burns resemble scalds, and destroyed only the epidermis. In several such instances the hair on the burned portions was not destroyed, and where the bodies of the sufferers were protected by even light clothing they were uninjured.

"Had the dust which struck the injured people been somewhat hotter, their clothing would have been ignited; and if they had inhaled the hot dust, death would have been almost instantaneous. The condition of the dead in St. Pierre favors the conclusion that this deduction shows what took place there. While the inhalation of

steam charged with burning hot dust may seem ingly be accepted as the principal cause of death in the stricken city, it must be admitted that many persons were no doubt killed by falling walls, by nervous shock, etc.

"The blasts which swept St. Pierre on the morning of May 8, and again on May 20. passed through the city with hurricane force. This is demonstrated by the manner in which great trees were uprooted, strong masonry walls thrown down, the lighthouse overturned, etc. The direction in which all these objects were swept was a little west of south, or directly away from Mont Pelée. The most conspicuous evidence of the strength of the blast which wrought the mechanical destruction is furnished by a statue of the Blessed Virgin, referred to above. That statue, composed, I understand, of iron, and measuring over 11 feet in height and nearly 10 feet in circumference at the shoulders, and weighing several tons,-was swept from its pedestal and carried southward about 45 feet. All the evidence collected in this connection cannot here be presented, but it indicates that the blast which wrought the havoc referred to passed over the city with full hurricane force."

THE

PRIZE CORONATION ODES.

HE Good Words comes out this July very much enlarged in size and greatly elated in spirit at the response to its coronation ode competition. Prizes of £50, £15, and £10. were offered last Christmas. The final award was given by Stopford Brook, Edmund Gosse, and William Canton. Odes were received from 1,084 competitors, and from almost every part of the empire. The editor is almost swept off his feet by the unexpected number and widely distributed origins of these odes. "The young loyalty has come to its manhood." The empire has found voice as a unit.

To read them, poem after poem, from all parts of the empire, is to become conscious of an imperial force the like of which history holds no record and the chronicles of the nations show no trace. Turning over ode after ode the beautiful strains of harmonious patriotism blend into a single stately imperial anthem until the reader, pausing as it were to listen, finds almost overpowering the glorious diapason of the song. Very interesting, indeed, is the mingling of races and creeds, when side by side, upon a table in London, lie some eleven hundred odes, written by Brahmin and Mohammedan and Buddhist and native Christians,-negroes of the West, from the Leeward Isles and the Windward, natives of the East, Indian, Burmese and Cinghalese,

Protestant, Roman Catholic, Dissenter, Quaker, and Jew. Their pens, some of them, would have run more readily in Tamil or Telugu, Pushtu or Persian or Arabic, but they are all in the language of the ruling race, and cramped of course though they are, they are all of them real and living in thought and sentiment. Of course, the majority of the odes are by writers of our own race. . . Never have poets sung with such a voice before. Knowledge of the splendid responsibilities of empire with boundaries that encompass the world,and vexed along all their length by the uncharitableness of envious neighbors or the turbulence of tribes that cannot yet understand, give dignity to the singers and noble form to their song.'

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The first prize falls to Lauchlan MacLean Watt, B.D., minister of Alloa, Scotland; the second to Rev. S. Cornish Watkins, Kingston, Herefordshire; the third is divided between Lucy Eveline Smith, of Dunedin, New Zealand, and F. H. Wood, M.A., Bromley Park, Kent. Perhaps as characterful as any is the passage in Mr. Watt's Ode on the Union Jack:

Ah, 'tis no empty fluttering of a dream,
Our flag's proud gleam:

Many and tired the fingers that have sewn it,

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SUC

"LORD SALISBURY AS A SAINT."

UCH is the inscription beneath a picture of statuary in Mr. F. D. How's sixth paper on Lord Salisbury, in Good Words. It might fitly head the entire article. "The curious and interesting statue is to be seen in the sculpture gallery of the beautiful reredos of the Chapel of All Souls' College, Oxford. The reredos was erected about forty-two years ago, at the time that Lord Salisbury had just been elected to a fellowship of all Souls', and the artist, having determined to give his saints the faces of actual

living people rather than idealized features, chose Lord Salisbury's face as his type of a Christian warrior." Mr. How exclaims against the charge of extreme partisanship on the ritualistic side :

"No greater mistake could be made. Lord Salisbury is a high churchman, but of the most wide-minded and charitable kind. He is no friend to the advanced school of modern ritualism, neither does he fail to appreciate at its full value the piety and learning of Evangelicals' with whom he may not be in all matters in perfect sympathy. It is only necessary to notice the advice that he has given to the crown as to the appointments to bishoprics to be assured of the impartiality and wisdom of his views."

A RECORD BISHOP-MAKER.

And then Mr. How recalls the extraordinary fact that as prime minister Lord Salisbury has been concerned in the appointment of thirtyseven bishops! This surely establishes something like a record in bishop-making. Yet Lord Salisbury used to say there were few whom he considered eligible for the episcopal bench, and few whom the Queen considered eligible, but the number whom both he and Her Majesty thought eligible was very small indeed.

SUNDAY AT HATFIELD.

After describing the chapel in Hatfield Hall, Mr. How proceeds:

"The services in this chapel include daily morning prayer at 9:30 (the general breakfast hour being 10); and on Sundays an early celebration at 9:15, with afternoon service at 3:30. These services are taken by one of the curates at the parish church; but when there is no one staying at Hatfield, the morning service on Sundays is given up, Lord Salisbury and Lady Gwendolen Cecil coming to the church instead. These arrangements are all the easier to make, as the rectory of Hatfield is held by Lord William Cecil, which recalls the fact that the rectory of Hawarden is held by the son of the late Mr. Gladstone, the rival statesmen each having had the happiness of being ministered to by one of their sons. Another coincidence is the circumstance that both rectories are of exceptional value."

A portrait of the rector of Hatfield has a strange resemblance to the bishops of Worcester and Rochester. Mr. How has shown "the thorough attachment of Lord Salisbury to the Church":

"His love for her has always been sincere and unostentatious. He has made few professions, he has not taken prominent part in her services except as a regular worshiper, but the

one thing which has had the power to rouse him to an outburst of indignation has been an attack upon her by her so-called friends."

SAINT AND SCIENTIST IN ONE.

It is significant that this devout churchman and maker of bishops has been at the same time and in this critical age a noted man of science :

"What is sometimes called Lord Salisbury's den,' consists of a laboratory, a dressing room, and a bathroom on the ground floor. Though not nearly so much used of late years, there yet remains plenty of evidence in the paraphernalia of the former of the industry with which at one time its occupant pursued his scientific researches. It has already been stated that Lord Salisbury is a geologist of the first rank. He has also given time to photography, and to the practical study of electricity; the splendid electric lighting at Hatfield House having been carried out under his direction."

HIS PERSONAL HABITS.

Mr. How brings to a close in the July Good Words his valuable series of sketches of the veteran premier. He touches on several personal characteristics. He first mentions Lord Salisbury's calm, and next his good health:

"Always an advocate of regular exercise, he still tricycles every morning when the weather permits, and at 8 o'clock is to be often seen thus wheeling along the London streets before the traffic of the day has assumed formidable proportions. Some years ago he was a tennis player of some repute."

His mental aloofness" comes in for frequent

comment :

Trifles are not allowed to disturb his rever. ies. An eye-witness described how she watched him walking up and down the platform at King's Cross, while the rug which he carried trailed along the dusty pavement. At last a man approached and said, I beg your pardon, sir, but your rug is trailing on the ground.' Ah!' said Lord Salisbury, with a smile, it generally does.' This little story forcibly reminds one of the occasion when Dean Stanley, who was staying away from home, came down to dinner with his collar hanging down attached by one button only. His hostess went up to him, and gently pointed out. the fact. Do you object?' said Dean Stanley. Oh, no!' was the only possible reply. Well, said the dean, 'no more do I !'

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In addition to this mental aloofness,' as it has been called, Lord Salisbury is extremely short-sighted, and is also one of the shyest of men. When traveling in a train he buries himself instantly in a book,-probably a novel, for

a distance of nearly five miles, where the continental divide is found, and in which the great Culebra cut is located, about thirty-six miles from Colon and thirteen miles from the Panama terminus. After passing through the Culebra cut, the canal route follows the course of the Rio Grande River to its mouth at Panama Bay. The mouth of the Rio Grande, where the canal line is located, is about a mile and a half westerly of the city of Panama. The Rio Grande is a small, sluggish stream throughout the last six miles of its course, and for that distance the canal excavation would be made mostly in soft silt or mud."

HARBOR IMPROVEMENTS.

The commission considered the feasibility of a sea-level route with a tidal lock at the Panama end, and it was found that the approximate cost of completing the work on that plan would be about $250,000,000, while the time required would probably be nearly or twice that needed for the construction of a canal with locks. The commission therefore adopted a project for a canal with locks. The commission projected a canal channel into the harbor of Colon which, with the construction of the harbor itself, was estimated to cost over $8,000,000, while the annual cost of maintenance was placed at $30,000. Regarding the habor at the Pacific end of the channel. Professor Burr says:

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The harbor of Panama, as it now exists, is a large area of water at the extreme northern limit of the bay, immediately adjacent to the city of Panama, protected from the south by the three islands of Perico, Naos, and Culebra. It has been called a roadstead. There is good anchorage for heavy-draft. ships, but for the most part the water is shallow. With the commission's requirement of a minimum depth of water of thirty-five feet, a channel about four miles long from the mouth of the Rio Grande to the six-fathom line in Panama Bay must be excavated. This channel would have a bottom width of two hundred feet with side slopes of one on three where the material is soft. Considerable rock would have to be excavated in this channel. At 4.41 miles from the six-fathom line is located a wharf at the point called La Boca. A branch of the Panama Railroad Company runs to this wharf, and at the present time deep-draft ships lie up alongside of it, and take on and discharge cargo, as do the trains of the Panama Railroad Company. This wharf is a steel-framed structure, founded upon steel cylinders, carried down to bedrock by the pneumatic process. Its cost was about $1,284,000. The total cost of this excavated channel, leading from Panama Harbor to the pier at La Boca, is esti

mated by the commission at $1,464,513. As the harbor at Panama is considered an open roadstead, it requires no estimate for annual cost of maintenance."

THE DAM AT BOHIO.

The principal engineering feature of the route is found at Bohio, where there will be a great dam constructed across the Chagres River, forming Lake Bohio, the summit of the canal. This lake will have a superficial area during high water of about forty square miles. The water will be backed up to a point called Alhajuela, about twenty-five miles up the river from Bohio. For a distance of nearly fourteen miles, from Bohio to Obispo, the route of the canal would lie in this lake. Although the water would be from eighty to ninety feet deep at the dam, Professor Burr says that for several miles below Obispo it will be necessary to make some excavation along the general course of the Chagres in order to secure the minimum depth of thirty-five feet for the navigable canal. The Bohio dam will raise the water surface of the canal from sea level in the Atlantic maritime section to an ordinary maximum of ninety feet above sea level. This total lift is divided into parts of forty-five feet each. There will therefore be a flight of two locks at Bohio.

NOT

FORMOSA UNDER JAPANESE RULE. WOT all Americans are aware that Japan, for the past seven years, has had to deal with conditions in her dependency of Formosa not unlike those which are now confronting the United States in the Philippines. Formosa was conceded to Japan as a result of the war with China in 1894-95. After the cession the island passed through a period of military government corresponding with our own administration in the Philippines; and after the military rule was ended a civil governor was appointed, who was made entirely responsible for the civil administration of the island. Thus far there have been in succession four governor-generals and three civil governors. At present, Baron Kodama is governor general and Dr. Shimpei Goto civil governor of Formosa. Dr. Goto has visited the United States during the present summer, for the purpose of studying our institutions. During his visit he contributed an account of the Japanese administration of Formosa to the Independent of July 3. To this article we are indebted for the following facts:

As in the Philippines, the population of Formosa is made up of various racial elements. According to the statistics for 1899, the total number of natives in the island was 2,725,041;

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