PELEE, p5-la', MOST (or more properly. 3IONTAGNE PELEE). An active volcano of the island of Martinique, situated in its northwestern part. in about latitude 14° 48' N. The elevation of the Alorne de La Croix (the culminating point at the time) previous to Nay, 1902, was about 4300 feet ; of the newly formed cone, with its ex tended 'plug' or obelisk. in May. 1903, 5200 feet-. The mountain has exceedingly gradual slopes. which rise with gradients of from five to twenty-five degrees, and is constructed of alternating lava-masses (andesite) and frag mental agglomerates. Its surface is scarred by deep ravines and waterways, the latter num bering about twenty-five, the majority of the streams taking individual courses to the sea. Among the most noted of these are the Riviere Blanche (lying in the course of the devastated region), the Rivieres Preeheur, Orande. Basse-Pointe. Faliaise, and Roxelane, the last-named Bowing through the town of Saint Pierre. Prior to the eruption of Nay 8, 1902. a small tarn, the Lae des Palmistes—often, but probably erroneously, referred to as a erater-lake —occupied the flattened summit of the volcano, and was surrounded by beautiful and rank vege tation. The only historically recorded eruptions of Mont Pelee are those of 1702, August, 1851, and 1902-03 (those of Slay 8. 20. 6, July 9, and August 30, 1902, being especially aecentuated), all having taken place from crater lets or sonfrieres located on the western and southwestern slopes of the mountain, and at ele vations of fkom 2400 to 3000 feet. The great eruptions of 1902 were from the basin of the Etang See, or 'Dry Lake.' near the head of the Riviere Blanche, this being the true crater, a wild basin. about a half mile in greatest diameter, sur rounded in greater part by rugged walls of rock 1600 feet or more in height. The seaward face of the Morne de La Croix plunged at an angle of 75° into this erater-basin. The active opening of this crater, the general character of which had been recognized fifty years. before, was on April 25. 1902; from it, on Slay 5th, descended the 'avalanche' of boiling black mud that destroyed the sugar estate (usinc) of Guerin. and buried be neath its mass thirty or more of the workmen (and proprietors), and on May Sth the black cloud of explosive and exploded superheated steam, charged with glowing incandescent particles, which (at 8.2 a.m.) destroyed Saint Pierre, and
with it hardly less than 30,000 people. The phenomena of this remarkable eruption are not yet known in their full detail, but they arc among the most extraordinary recorded in the intensity of the associated electric manifestations, the vast disturbance ill the magnetic field, and the violence of the destroying blow. The magnetic disturb ance was transmitted to the antipodal region of the earth in about two minutes' time, while the noise of the eruption manifested itself forcibly at Maracaibo, Venezuela, and beyond, at a direct distance of 850 miles, or considerably more.
The second death-dealing eruption of Mont Pelee took place on August 30th at about and destroyed in less or greater part Nome Rouge and Ajoupa-Bouillon, besides inflicting considerable damage, with loss of life, upon Monte Balai, Slorne Caput, and Bourdon (Basse Pointe). Tile loss of life in this later explosion, whose characteristics appear to have been almost exactly those of the Slay cataclysm, has been estimated at from 2000 to 2500. Since that date, as well as in the period preceding the early days of May. the volcano has been continuously active, discharging vast quantities of lapilli and ashes. There has been at no time during the recent pe riod of activity any lava flow, although the large ejected blocks or bombs, together with the mas sive extended obelisk, dearly show the pres ence of a molten magma within the throat or neck of the volcano. The column of ejected steam, laden with dust and lava bombs, shot forth from the crater on August 30th, just before the second great eruption, was estimated to have a diameter of 1500 feet as it rose over the crest of the crater, and its initial velocity was roughly computed to be in the neighborhood of 100 miles an hour. The steam ascended miles into the air, spreading out into a broad, mush room-like canopy. The most extraordinary fea ture that is associated with the activity of Pelee is the giant mass of rock, a veritable obelisk, which has been slowly pushed out through the summit opening of the new cone, and rises (June, 1903) to upward of 800 feet. with a basal thick ness of 300-350 feet. The molten lava rises into some portions of this, and may be followed at night-time along the passages, which are made brilliantly red.