pit is a remarkable circumstance that, despite the accentuated warnings which for a period of two weeks and more Mont Pelee threw out pre saging disaster, only a few hundred of the in habitants of Saint Pierre took the precaution to leave the city: and this loss to the population was counterbalanced by numbers of refugees who from minor villages and hamlets had flocked to the larger city for protection. The annihilating blow came with appalling swiftness, and there is reason to believe that for the greater part of the 30,000 victims death was well-nigh instan taneous, or, at least, brought about in two to three minutes. Only two of the inhabitants from the city proper appear to have survived their wounds, although a dozen or more lingered on in the hospital of Fort-de-France and elsewhere for a few days. The attitudes and conditions of many of the corpses found among the ruins were largely suggestive of the remains (casts) reeov- I ered from Pompeii, and there is reason to believe that the destruction of the two cities may have been brought about in very same way. In both places many of the bodies were found wholly destitute of clothing or giving indication of having had the clothing swept from the body by a tornadic blast. For several days preceding
the cataclysm Saint Pierre was well covered with ash, and the local journals called attention to the wintry aspect of the city. See MARTINIQum.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Belle, "Les eruptions de la Bibliography. Belle, "Les eruptions de la Montague Pelee," in (;(:ographie, vol. xvi. (Paris, 1902) ; Deckert, "Die westindische Vulkankatas trophe and ihre Sehaupliitze," in Gesellschaft fnr Erdkunde Zcitschrift (Berlin, 1902) ; Geikie, "The Volcanic Eruptions in the \Vest Indies," in Pull Mall Magazine, vol. xxvii. (London, 1902) ; Hill, "Report on the Volcanic Disturbances in the West Indies," in National ticographieal Magazine, xiii. (Washington, 1902) ; Hovey, "Mar tinique and Saint Vincent," in Museunt of Natural History Bulletin, vol. xvi. (New York, 1902) ; Russell, "Phases of the West. Indies Erup tions," in Century Magazine,vol. lxiv. (New' York, 1902) ; Lapparent, "L'eruption de la Marti nique," in Recur des Questions Scientifiques, ser. 3, vol. iii. (Louvain, 1903) ; Ileilprin. Mont 1'rle'e and the Traguly of Martinique (Philadelphia, 1903).