 26. Mexico is very largely a vast table land rising through much of its extent to an elevation of from 7,000 to 8,000 feet above sea level and bounded east and west by wide strips of torrid lowlands adjoining the oceans. It is crossed at about 19 degrees north latitude by a range of volcanic mountains running in almost a straight line east and west upon which are several extinct volcanic cones and five active or quiescent volcanoes. The highest of these is Popocatepital, south of the city of Mexico and nearly midway between the Atlantic and the Pacific. East of this mountain lies Orisabo, little below it in height, and San Martin or Tuxtla, 9,700 feet high, on the coast south of Vera Cruz. West of it is Horuio, 4,000 feet, and Colima, 12,800, near the Pacific coast. The volcanic energy continues southward toward the Ismus, but decreases north of this volcanic range. These mountains have shown little signs of activity in recent times. Popocatepital emits smoke, but there is no record of an eruption since 1540. Orisabo has been quiet since 1566. Tuxtla had a violent eruption in 1793, but since then has remained quiescent. Colima is the only one now active. For ten years past it has been emitting ashes and smoke. The most remarkable of these volcanoes is Horuio, which closely resembled Montenuovo, described in Chapter 13, in its mode of origin. Popocatepital, the hill that smokes in the Mexican language, the huge mountain clothed in eternal snows, and regarded by the idolaters of old as a god, towers up nearly 18,000 feet above the level of the sea, and in the days of the conquest of Mexico was a volcano in a state of fierce activity. It was looked upon by the natives with a strange dread, and they told the white strangers with awe that no man could attempt to ascend its slopes and yet live. But from a feeling of vanity or the love of adventure the Spaniards laughed at these fears, and accordingly a party of ten of the followers of Cortes commenced the ascent, accompanied by a few Indians. But these latter, after ascending about 13,000 feet to where the last remains of stunted vegetation existed, became alarmed at the subterranean bellowings of the volcano, and returned, while the Spaniards still painfully toiled on through the rarefied atmosphere, their feet crushing over the scurry and black-blazed volcanic sand until they stood in the region of perpetual snow amidst the glittering treacherous glaciers and crevasses, with vast slippery past precipices yawning round. Still they toiled on in this wild and wondrous region. A few hours before, they were in a land of perpetual summer. Here all was snow. They suffered the usual distress awarded to those who dared to ascend to these solitudes of nature, but it was not given to them to achieve the summit, for suddenly at a higher elevation, after listening to various ominous threatenings from the interior of the volcano, they encountered so fierce a storm of smoke, cinders and sparks that they were driven back half suffocated to the lower portions of the mountain. Sometime after another attempt was made, and upon this occasion with a definite object. The invaders had nearly exhausted their stock of gunpowder, and Cortes organized a party to ascend to the crater of the volcano, to seek and bring down sulfur for the manufacture of this necessary of warfare. This time the party numbered but five, led by one Francisco Montano, and they experienced no very great difficulty in winning their way upwards. The region of Verdure gave place to the wild lava-strewn slope which was succeeded in its turn by the treacherous glaciers, and at last the gallant little band stood at the very edge of the crater, a vast depression of over a league in circumference, and 1,000 feet in depth. Sulfur from the crater. Flame was issuing from the hideous abysses, and the stoutest man's heart must have quailed as he peered down into the dim, mysterious cavity to where the sloping sides were encrusted with bright yellow sulfur, and listened to the mutterings which warned him of the pent-up wrath and power of the mighty volcano. They knew that at any moment flame and stifling sulfurous vapor might be belched forth, but now no cowardice was shown. They had come provided with ropes and baskets, and it only remained to see who should descend. Lots were therefore drawn, and it fell to Montano, who was accordingly lowered by his followers in a basket four hundred feet into the treacherous region of eternal fires. The basket swayed, and the rope quivered and vibrated, but the brave Cavalier sturdily held to his task, disdaining to show fear before his humble companions. The lured light from beneath flashed upon his tanned features, and a sulfurous steam rose slowly and condensed upon the sides. But whatever were his thoughts, the Spaniard collected as much sulfur as he could take up with him, breaking off the bright incrustations and even dallying with his task as if in contempt of the danger till he had leisurely filled his basket when the signal was given and he was drawn up. The basket was emptied, and then he once more descended into the lured crater, collected another store, and was again drawn up. But far from shrinking from his task he descended again several times till a sufficiency had been obtained, with which the party descended to the flame. The Volcano Horuio No further back than the middle of the eighteenth century the site of Horuio was a level plain, including several highly cultivated fields which formed the farm of Don Pedro de Horuio. The plain was watered by two small rivers called Quitimba and San Pedro, and was bounded by mountains composed of basalt, the only indications of former volcanic action. These fields were well irrigated and among the most fertile in the country, producing abundant crops of sugarcane and indigo. In the month of June 1759 the cultivators of the farm began to be disturbed by strange subterranean noises of an alarming kind accompanied by frequent shocks of earthquake which continued for nearly a couple of months, but they afterward entirely ceased so that the inhabitants of the place were lulled into security. On the night between the 28th and 29th of September, however, the subterranean noises were renewed with greater loudness than before, and the ground shook severely. The Indian servants living on the place started from their beds in terror and fled to the neighboring mountains. Then scasing upon their master's farm they beheld it, along with a tract of ground measuring between three and four square miles in the midst of which it stood, rise up bodily as if it had been inflated from beneath like a bladder. At the edges, this tract was uplifted only about thirty-nine feet above the original surface, but so great was its convexity that toward the middle it attained a height of no less than five hundred twenty-four feet. The Indians who beheld this strange phenomenon declared that they saw flames issuing from several parts of this elevated tract, that the entire surface became agitated like a stormy sea, the great clouds of ashes illuminated by volcanic fires glowing beneath them rose at several points, and that white hot stones were thrown to an immense height. Giant chasms were at the same time opened in the ground, and into these the two small rivers above mentioned plunged. Their waters, instead of extinguishing the subterranean conflagration, seemed only to add to its intensity. Quantities of mud enveloping balls of basalt were then thrown up, and the surface of the elevated ground became studded with small cones, from which volumes of dense vapor, chiefly steam, were emitted, some of the jets rising from twenty to thirty feet in height. These cones the Indians called ovens, and in many of them was long heard a subterranean noise resembling that of water briskly boiling. Out of a great chasm in the midst of those ovens there were thrown up six larger elevations, the highest being one thousand six hundred forty feet above the level of the plain, four thousand three hundred fifteen above sea level, and now constituting the principal volcano of Horuyo. The smallest of the six was three hundred feet in height, the others of intermediate elevation. The highest of these hills had on its summit a regular volcanic crater, once there have been thrown up great quantities of dross and lava containing fragments of older rocks. The ashes were transported to immense distances, some of them having fallen on the houses at Kere-Taro, more than forty-eight leagues from Horuyo. The volcano continued in this energetic state of activity for about four months. In the following years its eruptions became less frequent, but it still continues to emit volumes of vapor from its principal crater as well as from many of the ovens in the upheaved ground. Effect on the rivers. The two rivers which disappeared on the first night of this great eruption now pursue an underground course for about a mile and a quarter, and then reappear as hot springs with a temperature of one hundred twenty six degrees Fahrenheit. This wonderful volcanic upheaval is all the more remarkable from the inland situation of the plain on which it occurred, it being no less than one hundred twenty miles distant from the nearest ocean, while there is no other volcano nearer to it than eighty miles. The activity of the ovens has now ceased, and portions of the upheaved plain on which they are situated have again been brought under cultivation, and the volcano is in the state of quiescence. The crater of Popocatepitol, which rises to a height of 17,000 feet, is a vast circular basin whose nearly vertical walls are in some parts of a pale rose tinned in others quite black. The bottom contains several small fuming cones whence arise vapors of changeable color being successively red, yellow, and white. All around them are large deposits of sulfur, which are worked for mercantile purposes. Orisaba has a little less lofty snow-clad peak. This mountain was in brisk volcanic activity from 1545 to 1560, but has since then relapsed into a prolonged repose. It was climbed in 1856 by Baron Mueller, to whose mind the crater appeared like the entrance to a lower world of horrible darkness. He was struck with astonishment on contemplating the tremendous forces required to elevate and rend such enormous masses, to melt them and then pile them up like towers, until by cooling they became consolidated into their present forms. The internal walls of the crater are in many places coated with sulfur, and at the bottom are several small volcanic craters. At the time of his visit the summit was wholly covered with snow, but the Indians affirmed that hot vapors occasionally ascend from fissures in the rocks. Since then others have reached its summit, among them Angelo Heilprin, the first to gaze into the crater of Mount Pele after its eruption. Eruptions in Nicaragua On the 14th of November 1867 there commenced an eruption from a mountain about eight leagues to the eastward of the city of León in Nicaragua. This mountain does not appear to have been previously recognized as an active volcano, but it is situated in a very volcanic country. The outburst had probably some connection with the earthquake at St. Thomas, which took place on the 18th of November following. The mountain continued in a state of activity for about 16 days. There was thrown out an immense quantity of black sand which was carried as far as to the coast of the Pacific, 50 miles distant. Glowing stones were projected from the crater to an estimated height of 3,000 feet. Central America is more prolific of volcanoes than Mexico and the state of Guatemala in particular. One authority credits this state with 15 or 16 and another with more than 30 volcanic cones. Of these, at least five are decidedly active. Tahumalco, which was in eruption at the time of the great earthquake of 1863, yields great quantities of sulfur, as does also Quesaltanango. The most famous is the Volcán de Agua Water Volcano, so-called from its overwhelming the old city of Guatemala with a torrent of water in 1541. Nicaragua is also rich in volcanoes, being traversed its entire length by a remarkable chain of isolated volcanic cones, several of which are to some extent active. We have already told the story of the tremendous eruption of Cosiguina in 1835, one of the most violent of modern times. The latest important eruption here was that of Ometopec, a volcanic mount on an island of the same name in Lake Nicaragua. This broke a long period of repose on June 19, 1883, with a severe eruption in which the lava pouring from a new crater in seven days overflowed the whole island and drove off its population. Incessant rumblings and earthquake shocks accompanied the eruption, and mud, ashes, and stones in lava covered the mountain slopes, which had been cultivated for many centuries. These were the most recent strong delays of volcanic energy in Central America, though former great outflows of lava are indicated by great fields of barren rock which extend for miles. The most destructive volcanic explosion of recent times, one perhaps unequaled in violence in all times, was that of the small mountain island of Krakatoa in the East Indian Archipelago in 1883. This made its effects felt round the entire globe and excited such wide attention that we feel called upon to give it a chapter of its own. The island of Krakatoa lies in the straits of Sanda between Java and Sumatra. In size it is insignificant, and had been silent so long that its volcanic character was almost lost sight of. Of its early history we know nothing. At some remote time in the past it may have appeared as a large cone of some 25 miles in circumference at base and not less than 10,000 feet high. Then, still in unknown times, its cone was blown away by internal forces leaving only a shattered and irregular crater ring. This crater was two or three miles in diameter while the highest part of its walls rose only a few hundred feet above the sea. Later volcanic work built up a number of small cones within the crater and still later a new cone, called Rakata, rose on the edge of the old one to a height of 2,623 feet. The first known event in the history of the island volcano was an eruption in the year 1680. After that it lay in repose, forming a group of islands one much larger than the others. Some of the smaller islands indicated the rim of the old crater, much of which was buried under the sea. Its state of quiescence continued for two centuries, a tropical vegetation richly mantled the island, and to all appearance it had sunk permanently to rest. Indications of a coming change appeared in 1880 in the form of earthquakes which shook all the region around. These continued at intervals for more than two years. Then, on May 20, 1883, there were heard at Batavia, a hundred miles away, booming sounds like the firing of artillery. Next day the captain of a vessel passing through the straits saw that Krakatoa was in eruption, sending up clouds of smoke and showers of dust and pumice. The smoke was estimated to reach a height of seven miles while the volcanic dust drifted to localities three hundred miles away. Awful premonitions. The mountain continued to play for about fourteen weeks with varying activity, several parties meanwhile visiting it and making observations. Such an eruption, in ordinary cases, would have ultimately died away with no marked change other than perhaps the ejection of a stream of lava, but such was not now the case. The sequel was at once unexpected and terrible. As the island was uninhabited no one actually saw what took place, those nearest to the scene of the eruption having enough to do to save their own lives, while the dense clouds of vapor and dust baffled observation. The phase of the greatest violence set in on Sunday, August 26. Soon after midday sailors on passing ships saw that the island had vanished behind a dense cloud of black vapor, the height of which was estimated at not less than seventeen miles. At intervals frightful detonations resounded and, after a time, a rain of pumice began to fall at places ten miles distant. For miles round fierce flashes of lightning rent the vapor, and at a distance of fully forty miles ghostly corpusants gleamed on the rigging of a vessel. These phenomena grew more and more alarming until August 27, when four explosions of fearful intensity shook earth and sea and air, the third being far the most violent and productive of the most widespread results. It was, in fact, perhaps the most tremendous volcanic outburst in its intensity known in human history. It seemed to overcome the obstruction to the energy of the internal forces. For the eruption now declined, and in a day or two practically died away, though one or two comparatively insignificant outbursts took place later, far reaching destruction. The eruption spread ruin and death over many surrounding leagues. At Krakatoa itself, when men once more reached its shores, everything was found to be changed. About two-thirds of the main island were blown completely away. The marginal cone was cut nearly in half vertically, the new cliff falling precipitously toward the center of the crater, where land had been, before, now sea existed, in some places more than 100 feet deep. But the part of the island that remained had been somewhat increased in size by ejected materials. Of the other islands and islets, some had disappeared, some were partially destroyed, some were enlarged by fallen debris, while many changes had taken place in the depth of the neighboring seabed. Two new islands, steers and Kaalmeyer, were formed. The ejected pumice sow cavernous in structure as to float upon the water, at places formed great floating islands which cover the sea for miles, and sometimes rose from four to seven feet above it, proving a serious obstacle to navigation. On vessels nearby, dust fell to the depth of 18 inches. The enormous clouds of volcanic dust which had been flung high into the air darkened the sky for a great area around. At Batavia, about a hundred miles from the volcano, it produced an effect not unlike that of a London fog. This began about seven in the morning of August 27th. Soon after ten the light had become lurid and yellow and lamps were required in the houses. Then came a downfall of rain, mingled with dust, and by about half past eleven the town was in complete darkness. It soon after began to lighten and the rain to diminish, and about three o'clock it had ceased. At Buitonzorg, twenty miles further away the conditions were similar but lasted for a shorter time. In places much farther away the upper sky presented a strangely murky aspect, and the sun assumed a green color. Phenomena of this kind were traced over a broad area of the globe even as far as the Hawaiian Islands. While over a yet wider area the sky after sunset was lit up by afterglows of extraordinary beauty. The height to which the dust was projected has been calculated from various data with the result that 121,500 feet or nearly 25 miles is thought to be a probable maximum estimate, though it may be that occasional fragments of larger size were shot up to a still greater height. A graphic description of the eruption. Another effect of a distressing character followed the eruption. A succession of enormous waves emanating from Krakatoa traversed the sea and swept the coast bordering the Straits of Sunda with such force as to destroy many villages on the low-lying shores in Java, Sumatra, and other islands. Some buildings at a height of fifty feet above sea level were washed away, and in some places the water rose higher, in one place reaching the height of 115 feet. At Telak Batang in Sumatra a ship was carried inland a distance of nearly two miles and left stranded at a height of 30 feet above the sea. The eruption of Krakatoa seems to have been due to some deep-lying causes of extraordinary violence, disappearing not only in the terrible explosion which tore the island to fragments and sent its remnants as floating dust many miles high into the air, but also from an internal convulsion that affected many of the volcanoes of Java, which almost simultaneously broke into violent eruption. We extract from Dr. Robert Bonney's Our Earth and Its Story, a description of these closely related events. The disturbances originated on the island of Krakatoa, with eruptions of red-hot stones and ashes, and by noon the next day Semeru, the largest of the Javanese volcanoes, was reported to be belching forth flames at an alarming rate. The eruption soon spread to Ganung Guntur and other mountains, until more than a third of the forty-five craters of Java were either in activity or seriously threatening it. Just before dusk a great cloud hung over Ganung Guntur, and the crater of the volcano began to emit enormous streams of white sulfurous mud and lava, which were rapidly succeeded by explosions, followed by tremendous showers of cinders and enormous fragments of rock, which were hurled high into the air and scattered in all directions, carrying death and destruction with them. The overhanging clouds were, moreover, so charged with electricity that waterspouts added to the horror of the scene. The eruption continued all Saturday night, and next day a dense cloud, shot with lurid red, gathered over the Kadang Range, intimating that an eruption had broken out there. This proved to be the case for soon after streams of lava poured down the mountain sides into the valleys, sweeping everything before them. About two o'clock on Monday morning, we are drawing on the account of an eyewitness, the great cloud suddenly broke into small sections and vanished. When light came it was seen that an enormous tract of land, extending from Point Capuchin on the south and Nigari Passering on the north and west, to the lowest point covering about fifty square miles, had been temporarily submerged by the tidal wave. Here were situated the villages of Nigari and Nigari Baba Wang. Few of the inhabitants of these places escaped death. This section of the island was less densely populated than the other portions, and the loss of life was comparatively small, although it must have aggregated several thousands. The waters of Welcome Bay and the Sunda Straits, Pepper Bay on the east, and the Indian Ocean to the south had rushed in and formed a sea of turbulent waves. Detonations heard for many miles away. On Monday night the volcano of Papandayang was in an active state of paroxymal eruption, accompanied by detonations which are said to have been heard for many miles away. In Sumatra three distinct columns of flame were seen to rise from a mountain to a vast height, and its whole surface was soon covered with fiery lava streams, which spread to great distances on all sides. Stones fell for miles around, and black fragmentary matter carried into the air caused total darkness. A whirlwind accompanied the eruption, by which house roofs, trees, men, and horses were swept into the air. The quantity of the matter ejected was such as to cover the ground and the roofs of the houses at Denamo to the depth of several inches. At first it was reported that Papandayang had been split into seven distinct peaks. This proved untrue, but in the open seams formed could be seen great balls of molten matter from the fissures poured forth clouds of steam and black lava, which, flowing in steady streams, ran slowly down the mountain sides, forming beds two hundred or three hundred feet in extent. At the entrance to Batavia was a large group of houses extending along the shore, and occupied by Chinaman. This portion of the city was entirely destroyed, and not many of the Chinese who lived on the swampy plains managed to save their lives. They stuck to their homes till the waves came and washed them away, fearing torrents of flame and lava, more than torrents of water. Of the thirty-five hundred Europeans and Americans in Batavia, which for several hours was in darkness, owing to the fall of ashes, eight hundred perished at Angere. The European and American quarter was first overwhelmed by rocks, mud, and lava from the crater, and then the waters came up and swallowed the ruins, leaving nothing to mark the site, having the loss of about two hundred lives of the inhabitants and those who sought refuge there. The loss of life above mentioned was but a small fraction of the total loss. All along the coast of the enjoining large islands, towns and villages were swept away and their inhabitants drowned, till the total loss was, as nearly as could be estimated, thirty-six thousand souls. Krakatoa thus surpassed Mount Pelé in its tale of destruction. These, too, indeed, have been the most destructive to life of known volcanic explosions, since the volcano usually falls far short of the earthquake in its murderous results. The distant effects of this explosion were as remarkable as the near ones. The concussion of the air reached to an unprecedented distance, and the clouds of floating dust encircled the earth, producing striking phenomena of which an account is given at the end of this chapter. The rapidity with which the effects of the Krakatoa eruption made themselves evident in all parts of the earth is perhaps the most remarkable outcome of this extraordinary event. The floating pumice reached the harbor of St. Paul on the twenty-second of March, 1884, after having made a voyage of some two hundred and sixty days at a rate of six tenths of a mile an hour. Immense quantities of pumice of a similar description, and believed to have been derived from the same source, reached Tamatave in Madagascar five months later, and no doubt much of it long continued to float round the world. Series of Atmospheric Waves Another result of the eruption was the series of atmospheric waves caused by the disturbance in the atmosphere, which affected the barometer over the entire world. The velocity with which these waves traveled has been variously estimated at from 912.09 feet to 1066.29 feet per second. This speed is, of course, very much inferior to that at which sound travels through the air. Yet, in three distinct cases, the noise of the Krakatoa explosions was plainly heard at a distance of at least 2,200 miles, and in one instance, that recorded from Rodriguez of nearly 3,000. The sound traveled to Ceylon, Burma, Manila, New Guinea, and Western Australia, places, however, within a radius of about 2,000 miles. Diego Garcia lies outside that area, and Rodriguez a thousand miles beyond it. Six days subsequent to the explosion after the atmospheric waves had traveled four times around the globe, the barometer was still affected by them. Another result, similar in kind, was the extraordinary dissemination of the Great Ocean Wave, which, in a like manner, seems to have encircled the earth, since high waves, without evident cause, appeared not only in the Pacific, but at many places on the Atlantic coast within a few days after the event. They were observed alike in England and at New York. The rider happened to be at Atlantic City, on the New Jersey coast at this time. It was a period of calm, the winds being at rest, but unheralded, there came in an ocean wave of such height as to sweep away the ocean front boardwalk, and do much other damage. He ascribed the strange wave at the time to the Krakatoa explosion, and is of the same opinion still. In addition to the account given of this extraordinary volcanic event, it seems desirable to give Sir Robert S. Ball's description of it in his recent work, The Earth's Beginnings, while repeating to some extent what we have already said, it is worthy from its freshness of description and general readability of a place here. Sir Robert S. Ball's description. Until the year 1883, few had ever heard of Krakatoa. It was unknown to fame as are hundreds of other gems of glorious entropical waters. It was not inhabited, but the natives from the surrounding shores of Sumatra and Java used occasionally to draw their canoes up on its beach, while they roamed through the jungle in search of the wild fruits that there abounded. It was known to the mariner who navigated the Straits of Sunda, for it was marked on his charts as one of the perils of the intricate navigation in those waters. It was no doubt recorded that the locality had more than once the seat of an active volcano. In fact, the islands seemed to owe its existence to some frightful eruption of bygone days. But for a couple of centuries there had been no fresh outbreak. It almost seemed as if Krakatoa might be regarded as a volcano that had become extinct. In this respect it would only be like many other similar objects all over the globe or like the countless extinct volcanoes all over the moon. As the summer of 1883 advanced, the vigor of Krakatoa, which had sprung into notoriety at the beginning of the year, steadily increased and the noises became more and more vehement. These were presently audible on shores ten miles distant, and then twenty miles distant, and still those noises waxed louder and louder until the great thunders of the volcano, now so rapidly developing, astonished the inhabitants that dwelt over an area at least as large as Great Britain. And there were other symptoms of the approaching catastrophe. With each successive convulsion a quantity of fine dust was projected aloft into the clouds. The wind could not carry this dust away as rapidly as it was hurled upward by Krakatoa, and accordingly the atmospheres became heavily charged with suspended particles. A pall of darkness thus hung over the adjoining seas and islands. Such was the thickness and density of these atmospheric volumes of Krakatoa dust that, for a hundred miles around, the darkness of midnight prevailed at midday. Then the awful tragedy of Krakatoa took place. Many thousands of the unfortunate inhabitants of the adjacent shores of Sumatra and Java were destined never to behold the sun again. They were presently swept away to destruction in an invasion of the shore by the tremendous waves with which the seas surrounding Krakatoa were agitated. As the days of August passed by, the spasms of Krakatoa waxed more and more vehement. By the middle of that month the panic was widespread, for the supreme catastrophe was at hand. On the night of Sunday, August 26, 1883, the blackness of the dust clouds, now much thicker than ever in the straits of Krakatoa, and adjacent parts of Sumatra and Java, was only occasionally illumined by lurid flashes from the volcano. At the town of Batavia, a hundred miles distant, there was no quiet that night. The houses trembled with subterranean violence and the windows rattled as if heavy artillery were being discharged in the streets. And still these efforts seemed to be only rehearsing for the supreme display. By ten o'clock on the morning of Monday, August 27, 1883, the rehearsals were over and the performance began. An overture consisting of two or three introductory explosions was succeeded by a frightful convulsion which tore away a large part of the island of Krakatoa and scattered it to the winds of heaven. In that final outburst all records of previous explosions on this earth were completely broken. An extraordinary noise. This supreme effort, it was which produced the mightiest noise that, so far as we can ascertain, has ever been heard on this globe. It must have been, indeed, a loud noise which could travel from Krakatoa to Batavia and preserve its vehemence over so great a distance. But we should form a very inadequate conception of the energy of the eruption of Krakatoa if we thought that its sounds were heard by those merely a hundred miles off. This would be little indeed compared with what is recorded on testimony which it is impossible to doubt. Westward from Krakatoa stretches the wide expanse of the Indian Ocean. On the opposite side from the Straits of Sunda lies the island of Rodriguez, the distance from Krakatoa being almost three thousand miles. It has been proven by evidence which cannot be doubted that the thunder of the great volcano attracted the attention of an intelligent Coast Guard on Rodriguez who carefully noted the character of the sounds and the time of their occurrence. He heard them just four hours after the actual explosion, for this is the time the sound occupied on its journey. A constant wind. This mighty incident at Krakatoa has taught us other lessons on the condition of our atmosphere. We previously knew little, or I might say almost nothing, as to the conditions prevailing above the height of ten miles overhead. It was Krakatoa which first gave us a little information which was greatly wanted. How could we learn what winds were blowing at a height four times as great as the loftiest mountain on the earth, and twice as great as the loftiest altitude to which a balloon has ever soared? No doubt a straw will show which way the wind blows. But there are no straws up there. There was nothing to render the winds perceptible until Krakatoa came to our aid. Krakatoa drove into those winds prodigious quantities of dust. Hundreds of cubic miles of air were thus deprived of that invisibility which they had hitherto maintained. With eyes full of astonishment men watched those vast volumes of Krakatoa dust on a tremendous journey. Of course, everyone knows the so-called trade winds on our earth's surface which blow steadily in fixed directions and which are of such service to the mariner. But there is yet another constant wind. It was first disclosed by Krakatoa. Before the occurrence of that eruption no one had the slightest suspicion that far up a loft, twenty miles over our heads, a mighty tempest is incessantly hurrying with a speed much greater than that of the awful hurricane which once laid so large a part of Krakatoa on the ground and slew so many of its inhabitants. Fortunately for humanity this new trade wind does not come within less than twenty miles of the earth's surface. We are thus preserved from the fearful destruction that its unremittant blast would produce. Blasts against which no tree could stand in ten minutes do as much damage to a city as would the most violent earthquake. When this great wind had become charged with the dust of Krakatoa, then, for the first, and I may add, for the only time, it stood revealed to human vision. Then it was seen that this wind circled round the earth in the vicinity of the equator and completed its circuit in about thirteen days. A vast cloud of dust. The dust manufactured by the supreme convulsion was whirled round the earth in the mighty atmospheric current into which the volcano discharged it. As the dust cloud was swept along by this incomparable hurricane, it showed its presence in the most glorious manner by decking the sun and the moon in hues of unaccustomed splendor and beauty. The blue color in the sky under ordinary circumstances is due to particles in the air, and when the ordinary motes of the sun beam were reinforced by the introduction of the myriad of motes produced by Krakatoa, even the sun itself sometimes showed a blue tint. Thus the progress of the great dust cloud was traced out by the extraordinary sky effects it produced, and from the progress of the dust cloud we inferred the movements of the invisible air current which carried it along. Nor need it be thought that the quantity of material projected from Krakatoa should have been inadequate to produce effects of this worldwide description. Imagine that the material which was blown to the winds of heaven by the supreme convulsion of Krakatoa could be all recovered and swept into one vast heap. Imagine that the heap were to have its bulk measured by a vessel consisting of a cube one mile long, one mile broad, and one mile deep. It is estimated that even this prodigious vessel would have to be filled to the brim at least ten times before all the products of Krakatoa had been measured. It is not specially to the quantity of material ejected from Krakatoa that it owes its reputation. Great as it was it has been much surpassed. Professor Judd says that the great eruption of Papandayang in Java in 1772, of Skoptur Jokul in 1783, and of Tamboro in Sumbawa in 1815 were marked by the extrusion of much larger quantities of material. The special feature of the Krakatoa eruption was its extreme violence which flung volcanic dust to a height probably never before attained and produced sea and air waves of an intensity unparalleled in the records of volcanic action. Judd thinks this was due to the situation of the Krakatoa and the possible inflow through fissures of a great volume of sea water to the interior lava, the result being the sudden production of an enormous volume of steam. Extraordinary red sunsets. The red sunsets spoken of above were so extraordinary in character that a fuller description of them seems advisable. A remarkable fact concerning them is the great rapidity with which they were disseminated to distant regions of the earth. They appeared around the entire equatorial zone in a few days after the eruption, this doubtless being due to the great rapidity with which the volcanic dust was carried by the upper air current. They were seen at Rodriguez 3,000 miles away on August 28th, and with a week in every part of the torrid zone. From this zone they spread north and south with less rapidity. Their first appearance in Australia was on September 15th, and at the Cape of Good Hope on the 20th. On the latter day they were observed in California and the southern United States. They were first seen in England on November 9th. Elsewhere in Europe and the United States they appeared from November 20th to 30th. The effect lasted in some instances as long as an hour and three quarters after sunset. In India the sun and skies assumed a greenish hue, and there was much curiosity regarding the cause of the green sun. Another remarkable phenomenon of this period was the great prevalence of rain during the succeeding winter. This was probably due to the same cause, that is to the fact of the air being so filled with dust. The prevailing theory in regard to rain being that the existence of dust in the air is necessary to its fall. The vapor of the air concentrates into drops of such minute particles, the result being that where dust is absent rain cannot fall. As regards the sunset spoken of there are three similar instances on record. The first of these was in the year 526, when a dry fog covered the Roman Empire with a red haze. Nothing further is known concerning it. The other instances were in the years 1783 and 1831. The former of these has been traced to the great eruption of Skopter Jokul in that year. It lasted for several months as a pale blue haze, and occasioned so much obscurity that the sun was only visible when twelve degrees above the horizon, and then it had a blood-red appearance. Violent thunderstorms were associated with it, thus assimilating it with that of 1883. Unlike in 1783 and 1831 there was a pearly phosphorescent gleam in the atmosphere by which small print could be read at midnight. We know nothing regarding the meteorological conditions of 1831. The red sunsets of 1883 were remarkable for their long persistence. They were observed in the autumn of 1884 with almost their original brilliancy, and they were still visible in 1885 being seen at intervals as if the dust was then distributed in patches then driven about by the winds. Similar sunsets were occasionally visible for several years afterwards. These may well have been due to the same causes when we consider with what extreme slowness very fine dust makes its way through the air and how much it may be affected by the winds. The red sunsets described. One writer describes the appearance of these sunsets in the following terms. Immediately after sunset a patch of white light appeared ten or fifteen degrees above the horizon and it shone for ten minutes with a pearly luster. Beneath it a layer of bright red rested on the horizon melting upward into orange and this passed into yellow light which spread around the lucid spot. Next the white light grew of a rosy tint and soon became an intense rose hue. A vivid golden orial yellow strip divided it from the red fringe below and the rose red above. This description although exaggerated represents the general conditions of the phenomenon. On October 20th 1884 the author observed the sunset effect as follows. Immediately after the sun had set a broad cone of silverly luster rested upon a horizon of smoky pink. After fifteen minutes the white became rose color above and yellowish below deepening to a lemon color and finally into reddish tint while the rose faded out. The whole cone gradually sank and died away in the brownish red flush on the horizon more than an hour after sunset. The time of duration varied since on the succeeding evening it lasted only a half hour. These sunset effects if we can justly attribute them all to the Krakatoa eruption were extraordinary not alone for their intensity and beauty but for their extended duration. The influence of this remarkable volcanic outbreak being visible for several years after the event. Though no doubt is entertained concerning the cause of the red sunset effects of 1783 and 1883 that of 1831 is not so readily explained. There having been no known volcanic explosion of great intensity in that year. But in view of the fact that volcanoes exist in limited parts of the earth some of which may have been at work unknown to scientific man this difficulty is not inseparable. Possibly mounts Arabus or terror the burning mountains of the Antarctic zone unseen by man have prepared for civilized land this great spectacular effect of nature's doing. Part 1 of The San Francisco Calamity by Earthquake and Fire This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Mark Apfelstadt. The San Francisco Calamity by Earthquake and Fire by Charles Morris Chapter 28. Part 1 St. Pierre The principal city of the French island of Martinique in the West Indies lies for the length of about a mile along the island coast with high cliffs hemming it in its houses climbing the slope tier upon tier. At one place where a river breaks through the cliffs the city creeps further up towards the mountains as seen from the bay its appearance is picturesque and charming with the soft tints of its tiles the gray of its walls the clumps of verdure in its midst and the wall of green in the rear seen from its streets this beauty disappears and the chief attraction of the town is gone. Back from the three miles of hills which sweep in an arc around the town is the noble Montaigne Pele lying several miles to the north of the city a mass of dark rocks some four thousand feet high with rugged outline and cleft with gorges and ravines down which flow numerous streams gushing from the crater lake of the great volcano though known to be a volcano it was looked upon as practically extinct though as late as August 1856 it had been in eruption no lava at that time came from its crater but it hurled out great quantities of ashes and mud with strong sulfurous odor then it went to rest again and slept until 1902 the people had long ceased to fear it no one expected that grand old Mount Pele the slumbering so it was thought tranquil old hill whatever spurred forth fire and death this was entirely unlooked for Mount Pele was regarded by the natives as a sort of protector they had an almost superstitious affection for it from the outskirts of the city it rose gradually its grown thick with rich grass and dotted here and there was spreading shrubbery and drooping trees there was no pleasanter outing for an afternoon that a journey up the green velvet like sides of the towering mountain and a view of the quaint picturesque city slumbering at its base a peaceful scene there were no rocky cliffs no crags no protruding borders the mountain was peace itself it seemed to promise a cruel protection the poetic natives relied upon it to keep back storms from the land and frighten with its stern brow the tempests from the sea they pointed to it with profound as pride as one of the most beautiful mountains in the world children played in its bowers and arbors families picnic there day after day during the balmy weather hundreds of tourists ascended to the summit and looked with pleasure at the beautiful crystal lake which sparkled and glinted in the sunshine mont palais was the place of enjoyment of the people of saint pierre I can hear the placid native say old father palais is our protector not our destroyer not until two weeks before the eruption did the slumbering mountain show signs of waking to death and disaster on the twenty-third of April it first displayed symptoms of internal disquiet a great column of smoke began to rise from it and was accompanied from the time by showers of ashes and cinders despite these signals there was nothing until monday may fifth to indicate actual danger on that day a stream of smoking mud and lava burst through the top of the crater and plunged into the valley of the river blanche overwhelming the guarans sugar works and killing twenty three workmen and the son of the proprietor mr guarans was one of the largest sugar works on the island its destruction entailed a heavy loss the mud which overwhelmed it followed the beds of streams toward the north of the island the alarm in the city was great but it was somewhat allayed by the reports of an expert commission appointed by the governor which decided that the eruption was normal and that the city was in no peril to further allay the excitement the governor with several scientists took up his residence in saint pierre he could not restrain the people by force but the moral effect of his presence and the decision of the scientists had a similar disastrous report a graphic description by a sufferer the existing state of affairs during these few waiting days is so graphically given in a letter from mrs thomas t prentice wife of the united states console at saint pierre to her sister in melrose a suburban city of boston that we quoted here my dear sister this morning the whole population of the city is on the alert and every eye is directed towards mont pelé an extinct volcano everybody is afraid that the volcano has taken into its heart to burst forth and destroy the whole island fifty years ago mont pelé burst forth with terrific force and destroyed everything within a radius of several miles for several days the mountain has been bursting forth in flame and immense quantities of lava are flowing down its side all the inhabitants are going up to see it there is not a horse to be had on the island those belonging to the natives being kept in readiness to leave at a moment's notice last wednesday which was april twenty third i was in my room with little christine and we heard three distinct shocks they were so great that we supposed at first that there was someone at the door and christine went and found no one there the first report was very loud the second and third were so great that the dishes were thrown from the shelves and the house was rocked we can see mont pelé from the rear windows of our house and although it is fully four miles away we can hear the roar of fire and lava issuing from it the city is covered with ashes and clouds of smoke have been over our heads for the last five days the smell of sulfur is so strong that horses on the street stop and snort and some of them are obliged to give up dropping their harnesses and die from suffocation many of the people are obliged to wear wet handkerchiefs over their faces to protect them from the fumes of sulfur my husband assures me that there is no immediate danger and when there is the least particle of danger we will leave this place there is an american schooner the rf morse in the harbor and she will remain here for at least two weeks if the volcano becomes very bad we shall embark at once and go out to sea the papers in the city are asking if we are going to experience another earthquake similar to that which struck here some fifty years ago the fateful eighth day of may the writer of this letter and her husband console apprentice trusted mount pele too long they perished with all the inhabitants of the city in a deadly flood of fire and ashes that descended on the devoted place on the fateful morning of thursday may eighth only for the few who were rescued from the ships in the harbor there would be scarcely a living soul to tell that dread story of ruin and death the most graphic accounts are those given by rescued officers of the Roraima one of a fleet of the Quebec steamship company trading with the West Indies this vessel had left the island of Dominica for Martinique at midnight on Wednesday and reached Saint Pierre about seven o'clock on Thursday morning the greatest difficulty was experienced in getting into the port the air being thick with falling ashes and the darkness intense the ship had to grope its way to the anchorage appalling sounds were issuing from the mountain behind the town which was shrouded in darkness the ashes were falling thickly on the steamers deck where the passengers and others were gazing at the town some being engaged in photographing the scene the best way in which we can describe a scene of which few live to tell the story is to give the narratives of a number of the survivors from their several stories a coherent idea of the terrible scene can be formed from the various accounts given of the terrible explosion by the officers of the Roraima we select as the first example the following description by assistant purser Thompson a tale of sudden ruin I saw Saint Pierre destroyed it was blotted out by one great flash of fire nearly 40,000 persons were all killed at once out of 18 vessels lying in the road only one the British steamship Rotem escape and she I hear lost more than half on board it was a dying crew that took her out our boat the Roraima of the Quebec line arrived at Saint Pierre early Thursday morning for hours before we entered the roadstead we could see flames and smoke rising from Mount Pele no one on board had any idea of danger captain GT Mugga was on the bridge and all hands got on deck to see the show the spectacle was magnificent as we approach Saint Pierre we could distinguish the rolling and leaping of the red flames that belched from the mountain in huge volumes and gushed high into the sky enormous clouds of black smoke hung over the volcano when we anchored at Saint Pierre I noticed the cable steamship grappler the Rotem three or four American schooners and a number of Italian and Norwegian Berks the flames were then spurting straight up in the air now and then waving to one side or the other for a moment and again leaping suddenly higher up there was a constant muffled roar it was like the biggest oil refinery in the world burning up on the mountaintop there was a tremendous explosion about seven forty-five o'clock soon after we got in the mountain was blown to pieces there was no warning the side of the volcano was ripped out and there was hurled straight toward us a solid wall of flame it sounded like thousands of cannon the wave of fire was on us and over us like a lightning flash it was like a hurricane of fire I saw it strike the cable steamship grappler broadside on and capsize her from end to end she burst into flames and then sank the fire rolled in mass straight down upon Saint Pierre and the shipping the town vanished before our eyes and the air grew stifling hot and we were in the thick of it wherever the mass of fire struck the sea the water boiled and sent up vast clouds of steam the sea was turning to huge whirlpools that careen toward the open sea one of these horrible hot whirlpools swung under the Roraima and pulled her down on her beam ends with the suction she careened way over to port and then the fire hurricane from the volcano smashed her and over she went on the opposite side the fire wave swept off the mass in smokestack as if they were cut by a knife heat caused explosion captain mugga was the only one on deck not killed outright he was caught by the fire wave and terribly burned he yelled to get up the anchor but before two fathoms were heaved in the Roraima was almost upset by the boiling whirlpool and the fire wave had thrown her down on her beam ends to starboard captain mugga was overcome by the flames he fell unconscious from the bridge and toppled overboard the blast of fire from the volcano lasted only a few minutes it shriveled and set fire to everything it touched thousands of casks of rum were stored in St. Pierre and these were exploded by the terrific heat the burning rum ran in streams down every street and out to the sea this blazing rum set fire to the Roraima several times before the volcano burst the landings of St. Pierre were crowded with people after the explosion not one living being was seen on land only 25 of those on the Roraima out of 68 were left after the first flash the French cruiser Souché came in and took us off at 2 p.m. she remained nearby helping all she could until 5 o'clock then went to Fort de France with all the people she had rescued at that time it looked as if the entire north end of the island was on fire CC Evans of Montreal and John G Morris of New York who were among those rescued say the vessel arrived at 6 o'clock as eight bells were struck a frightful explosion was heard up the mountain a cloud of fire toppling and roaring swept with lightning speed down the mountainside and over the bay in town the Roraima was nearly sunk and caught fire at once I can never forget the horrid fiery choking whirlwind which enveloped me said Mr. Evans Mr. Morris and I rushed below we are not very badly burned not so bad as most of them when the fire came we were going to go to our posts we are engineers to play anchor and get out when we came up we found the ship of fire aft and fought it forward until 3 o'clock when the Souchet came to our rescue we were then building a raft Ben Benson the Carpenter of the Roraima said I was on deck amid ships when I heard an explosion the captain ordered me to up anchor I got to the windlass but when the fire came I went into the forecast so long got my duds when I came out I talked with Captain Muga Mr. Scott the first officer and others they had been on the bridge the captain was horribly burned he had inhaled flames and wanted to jump into the sea I tried to make him take a life preserver the captain who was undressed jumped overboard and hung on a line for a while then he disappeared the Cooper story James Taylor a Cooper employed on the Roraima gives the following account of his experience of the disaster hearing a tremendous report and seeing the ashes falling thicker I dived into a room dragging with me Samuel Thomas a gang-way man and fellow countryman shutting the door tightly shortly after I heard a voice which I recognized is that of the chief mate Mr. Scott opening the door with great caution I drew him in the nose of Thomas was burned by the intense heat we three and Thompson the assistant purser out of 68 souls on board were the only persons who escaped practically I'm injured the heat being unbearable I emerged in a few moments and the scene that presented itself to my eyes baffled description all around the deck were the dead and dying covered with boiling mud there they lay men women and little children and the appeals of the ladder for water were heart rendering when water was given them they could not swallow it owing to their throats being filled with ashes or burnt with the heated air the ship was burning aft and I jumped overboard the sea being intensely hot I was at once swept seaword by a tidal wave but the sea receded a considerable distance the return wave washed me up against an upturned sloop to which I clung I was joined by a man so dreadfully burned and disfigured as to be unrecognizable afterwards I found he was the captain of the Rorama captain mugger he was in dreadful agony begging piteously to be put on board his ship picking up some wreckage which contained bedding in a tool chest I with the help of five others who had joined me on the wreck constructed a rude raft on which we placed the captain then seeing an upturned boat I asked one of the five a native of Martinique to swim and fetch it instead of returning to us he picked up two of his countrymen and went away in the direction of Fort de France seeing the Rotem which arrived in port shortly after we anchored making for the Rorama I said goodbye to the captain and swam back to the Rorama the Rotem however burst into flames and put to sea I reached the Rorama about half past two and was afterwards taken off by a boat from the French warship sushi 24 others with myself were taken on to Fort de France three of these died before reaching port a number of others have since died Samuel Thomas the gangway man whose life was saved by the forethought of Taylor says that the scene on the burning ship was awful the groans and cries of the dying for whom nothing could be done were horrible he describes a woman as being burned to death with a living babe in her arms he says that it seems as if the whole world was a fire Consolami's statement the inflammable material in the four part of the ship that would have ignited that part of the ship overboard by him and the other two uninjured men the grappler the telegraph company ship was seen opposite the you seen Guarin and disappeared as if blown up by a submarine explosion the captain's body was subsequently found by a boat from the sushi Consolami of Guadalupe who has already stated had hastened to Fort de France on hearing of the terrible event tells the story of the disaster in the following words Thursday morning the inhabitants of the city walk to found heavy clouds shrouding Mount Pele crater all day Wednesday horrible detonations had been heard these were echoed from St. Thomas on the north end of Barbados on the south the cannonading ceased on Wednesday night and finances fell like rain on St. Pierre the inhabitants were alarmed but Governor Moutet who had arrived at St. Pierre the possible to allay the panic the British steamer Rorama reached St. Pierre on Thursday with ten passengers among whom were Mrs. Stokes and her three children and Mrs. H. J. they were watching the rain of ashes when with a frightful roar and terrific electrical discharges a cyclone of fire mud and steam swept down from the crater over the town and bay sweeping all before and destroying the fleet of vessels at anchor off the shore of the catastrophe so far obtainable cease thirty thousand corpses are strewn about buried in the ruins of St. Pierre or else floating gnawed by sharks in the surrounding seas twenty eight charred half dead human beings were brought here sixteen of them are already dead and only four of the whole number are expected to recover a woman's experience on the Rorama Margaret Stokes the nine year Stokes of New York who with her mother a brother aged four and a sister aged three years was on the ill-fated steamer Rorama was saved from that vessel but is not expected to live her nurse Clara King tells the following story of her experience she said she was in her stateroom when the steward of the Rorama called out to her look at Montpellet she went on deck and saw a vast mass of black cloud coming down the volcano the steward ordered to return to the saloon saying it is coming Miss King then rushed to the saloon she says she experienced the feeling of suffocation which was followed by intense heat the after part of the Rorama broke out in flames Ben Benson the carpenter of the Rorama severely burned assisted Miss King and Margaret Stokes to escape with the help of Mr. Scott the first mate of the Rorama he constructed a raft with life preservers upon this Miss King and Margaret replaced while this was being done Margaret's little brother died mate Scott brought the child water at great personal danger but it was unavailing shortly after the death of the little boy Mrs. Stokes succumbed Margaret and Miss King eventually got away on the raft and were picked up by the steamer Corona mate Scott also escaped Miss King did not sustain serious injuries she covered the face of Margaret but she was finally fatally burned the only woman known at that time to who survived the disaster at Saint-Pierre was a negro named Philote she was found in a cellar Sunday afternoon where she had been for three days she was still alive but fearfully burned from head to toes she died afterward in the hospital Captain Freeman's thrilling account of the vessels in the harbour of Saint Pierre on the fateful morning the British steamer Rotem escaped and that with a crew of whom few reached the open sea alive those who did escape were terribly injured Captain Freeman of this vessel tells what he experienced in the following thrilling language Saint Lucia British West Indies May 11th the steamer Rotem of which I am captain left Saint Lucia at midnight of May 7th and was off Saint Pierre Martinique at six o'clock on the morning of May 8th I noticed that the volcano Montpellier was smoking and crept slowly in towards the bay finding there among others the steamer Rorama the telegraph repairing steamer grappler and four sailing vessels I went to anchorage between seven and eight and had hardly moored when the side of the volcano opened out with a terrible explosion a wall of fire swept over the town and the bay the Rotem was struck broadside by the burning mass terrible nearly capsizing her awful results hearing the awful report of the explosion and seeing the great wall of flames approaching the steamer those on deck sought shelter wherever it was possible jumping into the cabin the foxtel and even into the hold I was in the chart room but the burning embers were born by so swift a movement of the air that they were swept in through the door and portholes suffocating and scorching me badly I was terribly boned by these embers about the face and hands but managed to reach the deck there as soon as it was possible I mustered those few survivors who seemed able to move and ordered them to slip anchor, leaped for the bridge and ran the engine for full speed as done the second and third engineer and a fireman were on watch below and so escaped injury they did their part in the attempt to escape but the men on deck could not work because it was jammed by the debris from the volcano we accordingly went ahead in the stern until the gill was free but in this running backward and forward it was two hours after the first shock before we were clear of the bay one of the most terrifying conditions was that the atmosphere being charged with ashes it was totally dark the sun was completely obscured and the air was only illuminated by the flames from the volcano and the walls of the burning town and shipping it seems small to say that the scene was terrifying in the extreme as we backed out we passed close to the arama which was one mass of blaze the steam was rushing from the engine room and the screams of those on board were terrible to hear the cries for help were all in vain for I could do nothing but save my own ship when I last saw the arama she was settling down by the stern that was about ten o'clock in the morning when the Rotom was safely out of the harbor at Saint Pierre with its desolation and horrors I made for Saint Lechier arriving there and when the ship was safe I mustered the survivors as well as I was able and searched for the dead and injured some I found in the saloon where they had vainly sought for safety but the cabins were full of burning embers that had blown in through the portals through these the fire swept as through funnels and burned the victims where they lay or stood leaving a circular imprint of scorched and burned flesh I brought ten on deck who were thus burned two of them were dead the others survived although in a dreadful state of torture from their bones their screams of agony were heart-rending out of a total of twenty-three on board the Rotom which includes the captain and the crew ten are dead and several are in the hospital my first and second mates my chief engineer and my super cargo Campbell by name were killed the ship was covered from stem to stern with tons of powdered lava which retained its heat for hours after it had fallen in many cases it was practically incandescent and to move about the deck in this burning mass was not only difficult but absolutely perilous I am only now able to begin thoroughly to clear and search the ship for any damage done by this volcanic rain and to see if there are any corpses in out of the way places for instance this morning I found one body in the peak of the foxel the body was horribly burned and the sailor had evidently crept in there in his agony to die on the arrival of the Rotom at St. Lucia the ship presented an appalling appearance dead and calciumed bodies lay about the deck which was also crowded with injured helpless and suffering people prompt assistance was rendered to the injured by the authorities here and my poor tortured men were taken to the hospital the dead were buried I have omitted mention that out of twenty one black laborers that I brought from Granada to help in stevedoring only six survived most of the others threw themselves overboard to escape a dreadful fate but they met a worse one for it is an actual fact that the water around the ship was literally at a boiling heat the escape of my vessel was miraculous the woodwork of the cabins and bridge and everything inflammable on the deck were constantly igniting and it was with great difficulty that we few survivors managed to keep the flames down my ropes awnings tarpolines were completely burned up I witnessed the entire destruction of Saint Pierre the flames enveloped the town in every quarter with such rapidity that it was possible that any person could be saved as I have said the day was suddenly turned to night but I could distinguish by the light of the burning town people distractedly running about on the beach the burning buildings stood out from the surrounding darkness like black shadows all this time the mountain was roaring and shaking and in the intervals between these terrifying sounds I could hear the cries of despair and agony from the thousands who were perishing these cries added to the terror seen but it is impossible to describe its horror or the dreadful sensations it produced it was like witnessing the end of the world let me add that after the first shock was over the survivors of the crew rendered willing help to navigate the ship to this port Mr. Plussineau our agent in Martinique happened to be on board and was saved and I really believe that he is the only survivor of Saint Pierre as it is seriously burned on his hands and face Freeman, master British steamship Rodham the Itona passes Saint Pierre the British steamer Itona of the Norton line stopped at Saint Lechia to Coal on May 10th Captain Cantel there visited the Rodham and had an interview with Captain Freeman on the 11th the Itona put to see again passing Saint Pierre in the afternoon we subjoin her captain's story the weather was very clear and we had a fine view but the old outlines of Saint Pierre were not recognizable everything was a mass of blue lava and the formation of the land itself seemed to have changed when we were about 8 miles off the northern into the island Mount Pelé began to belch a second time clouds of smoke and lava shot into the air and spread all over the sea darkening the sun our decks in a few minutes were covered with the substance that looked like sand dyed a bluish tint and which smelled like phosphorus for all that the day was clear there was little to be seen satisfactorily over the island there hung a blue haze it seemed to me that the formation the topography of the island was altered everything seemed to be covered with a blue dust such as had fallen aboard us every day since we had been within the affected region of the blue lava dust for more than an hour we scanned the coast with our glasses now and then discovering something that looked like a ruined hamlet or collection of buildings there was no life visible suddenly we realized that we might have to fight for our lives as the Rotom's people had done we were about 4 miles off the northern end of the island when suddenly they're shot up in the air to a tremendous height the sky darkened and the smoke seemed to swirl down upon us in fact it spread all around darkening the atmosphere as far as we could see I called Chief Engineer Farish to the deck do you see that over there I asked pointing to the eruption for it was the second eruption of Montpellet he saw it all right Captain Freeman's story was fresh in my mind well Farish rush your engines they have never been rushed before he went below and soon we begin to burn coal and pile up the feathers in our forefoot I was on watch with second officer Gibbs at once we begin to furl awnings and make secure against fire the crew were all showing an anxious spirit and everybody on board including the four passengers were serious and apprehensive we begin to cut through the water at almost 12 knots ordinarily we make 10 knots there was no more of the land contour but everything seemed to be enveloped in a great cloud there was no fire visible but the lava dust rained down upon us steadily in less than an hour there were two inches of it upon our deck the air smelled like phosphorus no one dared to try to locate the sun because one's eye would fill with lava dust some of the blue lava dust is sticking to our mast yet although we have swabbed decks and rigging after little more than an hour's fast running we saw daylight ahead and begin to breathe easier if I had not talked with Captain Freeman and heard from him just how the black swirl of wind and fire rolled down upon him I would not have been so apprehensive but would have thought that the darkness and cloud that came down upon us meant just an unusually heavy squall Chief Engineer Farish's story the Atonas run from Montevideo was a fast one I think a record breaker we were 22 days and 21 hours from port to port off Martinique I stared at the coast for about an hour and then went below the blue lava that covered everything faded into a haze that hung over the island so that nothing was distinctly visible through my glass I discovered a stream of lava though it stretched down the mountainside and seemed to be flowing into the sea it was not clearly and distinctly visible however about three o'clock I went below to take 40 winks I had been in my berth only a few minutes when the steward told me the captain wanted me on the bridge do you see that Farish? he asked pointing at the land an outburst of smoke seemed to be sweeping down upon us it made me think of the Rotom's experience smoke and dust closed in about us shutting out the sunlight and participating a fall of lava on our decks go below and drive her said the captain and I didn't lose any time I can tell you we burned coal as though it didn't cost a cent the safety valve was jumping every second even though we were making twelve knots an hour for two hours we kept up the pace and then running into clear daylight let the engines slow down and we all cheered up a bit Captain Cantel visits the Rotom Captain Cantel went on board the Rotom whose frightful condition he thus describes at St. Lucia on May 11th I went on board the British Stream Ship Robin which had escaped from the terrible volcanic eruption of Martinique two days before the state of the ship was enough to show that those on board must have undergone an awful experience the Rotom was covered with a massive fine bluish-gray dust or ashes of cement-like appearance in some parts it laid two feet deep on the decks this matter had fallen in a red-hot state all over the steamer setting fire to everything it struck that was burnable and when it fell on the men on board burning off limbs and large pieces of flesh this was shown by finding portions of human flesh when the decks were cleared of debris the rigging ropes, tarpaulin sails, awnings, etc were charred or burned and most of the upper statues and spars were swept overboard or destroyed by fire skylights were smashed and cabins filled with volcanic dust the scene of ruin was deplorable the captain though suffering the greatest agony succeeded in navigating the vessel safely to the port of Castrier Saint Lucia with 18 dead bodies on the deck and human limbs scattered about a sailor stood by constantly wiping the captain's injured eyes I think the performance of the Rotom's captain was most wonderful and the more so when I saw his pitiful condition I do not understand how he kept up yet when the steamer arrived at Saint Lucia and medical assistance was procured this brave man asked the doctors to attend to the others first and refuse to be treated until this was done my interview with the captain brought out this account I left him in good spirits and receiving every comfort the sight of his face would frighten anyone not prepared to see it End of Chapter 28 Part 1 Recording by Mark Appelstadt Parlin, New Jersey Chapter 28 Part 2 of the San Francisco calamity by earthquake and fire This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Mark Appelstadt The San Francisco calamity by earthquake and fire by Charles Morris Chapter 28 Part 2 The Vivid Account of Montseur-Albert To the accounts given by the survivors of the Rorama and the officers of the Aetona it would be well to add the following graphic story told by Montseur-Albert a planter on the island the owner of an estate situated only a mile to the northeast of the burning crater of Montpellet his escape from death had in it something of the marvelous he says Montpellet had given warning of the destruction that was to come but we who had looked upon the volcano as harmless did not believe that it would do more fire and steam as it had done on other occasions it was a little before eight o'clock on the morning of May 8 that the end came I was in one of the fields of my estate when the ground trembled under my feet not as it does when the earthquakes but as though a terrible struggle was going on within the mountain a terror came upon me but I could not explain my fear as I stood still Montpellet seemed to shudder and a moaning sound issued from its crater it was quite dark the sun being obscured by ashes and fine volcanic dust the air was dead about me so dead that the floating dust seemingly was not disturbed then there was a rending crashing grinding noise which I can only describe as sounding as though every bit of machinery in the world had suddenly broken down it was deafening and the flash of light that accompanied it was blinding more so than any lightning I have ever seen it was like a terrible hurricane and where a fraction of a second before there had been a perfect calm I felt myself drawn into a vortex and I had to brace myself firmly it was like a great express train rushing by and I was drawn by its force the mysterious force leveled a row of strong trees tearing them up by the roots and leaving bare a space of ground fifteen yards wide and more than one hundred yards long transfixed I stood not knowing in what direction to flee I looked toward Montpellet and above its apex there appeared a great black cloud which reached high into the air it literally fell upon the city of Saint-Pierre it moved with a rapidity that made it impossible for anything to escape it from the cloud came explosions that sounded as though all the navies in the world were in titanic combat lightning played in and out of the broad forks the result being that intense darkness was followed by light that seemed to be of magnifying power that Saint-Pierre was doomed I knew but I was prevented from seeing the destruction by a spur of the hill that shut off the view of the city it is impossible for me to tell how long I stood there inert probably it was only a few seconds but so vivid were my impressions that it now seems as though I stood as a spectator for many minutes when I recovered possession of my senses I ran to my house and collected the members of the family all of whom were panic-stricken I hurried them to the seashore where we boarded a small steamship in which we made the trip in safety to Fort de France I know that there was no flame in the first wave that was set down upon Saint-Pierre it was a heavy gas like fire damp and it must have asphyxiated the inhabitants before they were touched by the fire which quickly followed as we drew out to sea Montpellé was in the throes of a terrible convulsion new craters seemed to be opening all about the summit and lava was flowing in broad streams in every direction my estate was ruined while we were still inside of it many women who lived in Saint-Pierre escaped only to know that they were left widowed and childless this is because many of the wealthier men sent their wives away while they remained in Saint-Pierre what happened on the Horus? the British steamer Horus experienced the effect of the explosion when farther from land after touching at Barbados she reached the vicinity of Martinique on the day of May 9 her decks being covered with several inches of dust when she was 125 miles distant we quote engineer Anderson's story on the afternoon of May 8 Thursday we noticed a peculiar haze in the direction of Martinique the air seemed heavy and oppressive the weather conditions were not at all unlike those which precede the great west Indian hurricanes but knowing it was not the season of the year for them we all remarked in the engine room that there must be a heavy storm approaching several of the sailors experienced deep water seamen laughed at our prognostications and informed us there would be no storm within the next 60 hours and insisted that according to all communications a dead calm was in sight so unusually peculiar were the weather conditions that we talked of nothing else during the evening that night in the direction of Martinique there was a very black sky an unusual thing at this season of the year and a storm was apparently brewing in the direction from which storms do not come in the season great flashes of light as the night wore on those on watch noticed what appeared to be a great flashes of lightning in the direction of Martinique it seemed as though the ordinary conditions were reversed and even the foxhole prophets were unable to offer explanations occasionally over the pounding of the engines and the rush of water we thought we could hear long deep roars not unlike the ending of a deep peel of thunder several times we heard the rumble or roar but at times we were not certain as to exactly what it was or even whether we really heard it there would suddenly come great flashes of light from the dark bank toward Martinique some of them seemed to spread over a great area while others seemed to spout skyward funnel-shaped all night discontinued and it was not until day came that the flashes disappeared the dark bank that covered the horizon toward Martinique however did not fade away with the breaking of day and at eight in the morning of the ninth Friday the whole section of the sky in that direction seemed dark and troubled about nine o'clock Friday morning I was sitting on one of the hatches with some of the other engineers and officers of the ship discussing the peculiar weather phenomena I noticed a sort of grit that got into my mouth from the end of the cigar I was smoking I attributed it to some rather bad coal which we had shipped aboard and turning to chief engineer Evans I remarked that the coal was mighty dirty and he said it was covering the ship with a sort of grit then I noticed the grit was getting on my clothes and finally someone suggested we go forward to the funnels so we wouldn't get dirt on us as we went forward we met one or two of the sailors from the foxtel who wanted to know about the dust that was falling on the ship then we found that the grayish looking ash was sifting all over the ship both forward and aft ashes rained on the ship every moment the ashes fell down all over the ship and at the same time grew thicker a few moments later we called down that we were running into a fog bank dead ahead fog banks in that section are unheard of at nine o'clock in the morning at this season and we were more than a hundred miles from land and what could fog and sand be doing there before we knew it we went into the fog which proved to be a big dense bank of the same sand and it rained down on us from every side ventilators were quickly brought to their places and later even the hatches were batten down dust became suffocating and the minute times had all they could do to keep from choking what the stuff was we could not at first conjecture or rather we didn't have much time to speculate on it for we had to get our ship in shape to withstand we hardly knew what at first we thought the sand must have been blown from shore then we decided that if the captain's figures were right we wouldn't be near enough to shore to have sand blown on us and as we had just cleared Barbados we were going to be right just as the storm of sand was at its height fourth engineer Wild was nearly suffocated by it but was easily revived about this time it became so dark we found it necessary to start up the electric lights and it was not until after we got clear from the fog that we turned the current off in the meantime they had burned from nine in the morning until after two in the afternoon the engine became choked then there was another anxious moment shortly after nine o'clock third engineer Renny had been running the donkey engine when suddenly it choked and when he finally got it clear from the sand or ashes he found the valves were all cut out and then it was we discovered that it was not sand but some sort of composition that seemed to cut steel like emery then came the danger that it would get into the valves of the engine and cut them out and for several moments all hands scurried about and helped make the engine room tight and even then the engines drifted in and kept all the engine room force wiping the engines clear of it toward three o'clock in the afternoon of Friday we were practically clear of the sand but at eleven o'clock that night we ran into a second bank of it they're not as bad as the first we made some experiments and found the stuff was superior to emery dust it cut deeper and quicker and only about half as much was required to do the work we made up our minds we would keep what came on board as it was better than emery dust and much cheaper so we gathered it up that night there were more of the same electric phenomena toward martenique but it was not until we got into San Lucio where we saw the rautum that we learned of the terrible disaster at Saint Pierre and we knew that our sand was lava dust the volcanic ash which fell in the decks of the Horus was ground as fine as rifle powder and was much finer than that which covered the decks of the Atona returning the stories told by officers of the Royama of which a number had been given it seems desirable to add here the narrative of L. R. S. Scott the mate of the ruined ship since it gives a vivid and striking account of his personal experience of the frightful disaster with many details of interest not related by others mate scott's graphic story we got to Saint Pierre and the Royama begin Mr. Scott at six thirty in the morning on thursday morning that's the morning the mountain and the town and the ships were all sent to hell in a minute all hands had breakfast I was standing on the foxle head trying to make out the marks of the pipes on a ship way out and heading for San Lucia I wasn't looking at the mountain at all but I guess the captain was for he was on the bridge and the last time I heard him speak was when he shouted Heave up Mr. Scott Heave up I gave the order to the men and I think some of them did jump to get up but nobody knows what really happened for the next fifteen minutes I turned around toward the captain and then I saw the mountain did you ever see the tide come into the Bay of Fundy it doesn't sneak in a little at a time as it does round here it rolls in in waves that's the way the cloud of fire and mud and white hot stones rolled down from the volcano over the town and over the ships it was honest in almost no time but I saw it and in the same glance I saw captain bracing himself to meet it on the bridge it was facing the fire cloud with both hands gripped hard to the bridge rail his legs apart and his knees braced back stiff I've seen him brace himself that same way many a time in a tough sea with the spray going mass head high and green water pouring along the decks I saw the captain I say at the same instant I saw that ruin coming down upon us I don't know why but that last glimpse of poor Mugga on his bridge will stay with me just as long as I remember Saint Pierre and that will be long enough in another instant it was all over for him as I was looking at him he was all ablaze he reeled and fell on the bridge with his face towards me his mustache and eyebrows were gone in a jiffy his hat was gone and his hair was aflame and so were his clothes from head to foot I knew he was conscious when he fell by the look in his eyes but he didn't make a sound that all happened a long way inside of half a minute then something new happened when the wave of fire was going over us a tidal wave of the sea came out from the shore and did the rest that wall of rushing water was so high and so solid it seemed to rise up and join the smoke and flame above for an instant we could see nothing but the water and the flame that tidal wave picked the ship up like a canoe and then smashed her after one list to starboard the ship righted but the mass the bridge the funnel and all the upper works had gone overboard I had saved myself from fire by jamming a metal ventilator cover over my head and jumping from the foxel head two Saint Kit Negroes saved me from the water by grabbing me by the legs and pulling me down into the foxel after them before I could get up three men tumbled in on top of me two of them were dead captain Mugga went overboard still clinging to the fragments of his wrecked bridge Daniel Taylor the ship's Cooper and a kits native jumped overboard to save him Taylor managed to push the captain onto a hatch that had floated off from us and then they swam back to the ship for more assistance but nothing could be done for the captain Taylor wasn't sure he was alive the last we saw of him or his dead body it was drifting shoreward on that hatch well after staying in the foxel about 20 minutes I went out on the deck there were just four of us left aboard who could do anything the four were Thompson, Dan Taylor Quashie and myself it was still raining fire and hot rocks and you could hardly see a ship's length for dust and ashes but we could stand that there were burning men and some women and two or three children flying around the deck not just burned but burning then when we got to them more than half of the ship's company had been killed in that first rush of flame some had rolled overboard when the tidal wave came and we never saw so much as their bodies the cook was burned to death in his galley he had been paring potatoes for dinner and what was left of his right hand held the shank of his potato knife the wooden handle was in ashes all of that happened to a man in less than a minute the donkey engineman was killed on deck sitting in front of his boiler in the midst of somebodies a hand or an arm or a leg below decks there were some twenty alive the ship was on fire of course what was left of it the stumps of both masts were blazing aft she was like a furnace but forward the flames had not got below deck so we four carried those who were still alive on deck into the foxel all of them were burned and most of them were half strangled one boy a passenger and just a little shaver the four-year-old son of the late Clement Stokes above Spokanev was picked up naked his hair and all his clothing had been burned off but he was alive we rolled him in a blanket and put him in a sailor's bunk a few minutes later we looked at him and he was dead my own son's gone too it had been his trick at lookout during the dog watch that morning when we were making for Saint-Pierre so I supposed at first when the fire struck us that he was asleep in his bunk and safe but he wasn't nobody could tell me where he was I don't know whether he was burned to death or rolled overboard and drowned he was a likely boy he had been several voyages with me and would have been a master some day he used to say how he'd make me mate after getting all hands that had any life left in them below and tended to at best we could the four of us that were left half-way ship shapes started in the fight the fire we had case oils stood aboard thanks to that tidal wave that cleared out our decks there wasn't much left to burn so we got the fire down so as we could live on board with it for several hours more and then the four turned to knock a raft together out of what timber and truck we could find below our boats had gone overboard with the masts and funnel prepared to trust to luck we made that raft for something over 30 that were alive we put provisions on for two days and rigged up a makeshift and sail for we intended to go to sea we were only three boat links from shore but the shore was hell itself we intended to put straight out and trust to luck that the corona that was about due at Saint Pierre would pick us up but we did not have to risk the raft for about three o'clock in the afternoon when we were almost ready to put the raft overboard the sushi came along and took us all off we thought for a minute just after we were wrecked that we were held from a ship that passed us we burned blue lights but she kept on we learned afterward that she was the Rotem soundings made off Martinique after the explosion showed that the earthquake effects of much importance had taken place under the sea bottom which had been lifted in some places and had sunk in others while deep crevices had been formed on the land a still greater effect had seemingly been produced beneath the water during the explosion the sea withdrew several hundred feet from its shoreline then it came back steaming with fury this indicating a lift and a fall of the ocean bed off the aisle soundings made subsequently near the island found one place a depth of four thousand feet where before it had only been six hundred feet deep the French cable company which was at work trying to repair the cables broken by the eruption found the bottom of the Caribbean sea so changed as to render the old charts useless new charts will need to be made up for future navigation the changes in sea level were not confined to the immediate center of the volcanic activity but extended as far north as Puerto Rico and it was believed that the seismic wave would be found to have altered the ocean bed around Jamaica vessels plying between St. Thomas Martinique and St. Lucia and other islands found it necessary to heave the lead while many miles at sea it is estimated that the sea had encroached from ten feet to two miles along the coast of St. Vincent near Georgetown and that a section on the north end of the island had dropped into the sea sounding showed seven fathoms where before the eruption there were thirty-six fathoms of water vessels that endeavored to approach St. Vincent toward the north reported that it was impossible to get nearer than eight miles to the scene of the catastrophe and that at that distance the ocean was seriously perturbed as from a submarine volcano boiling and hissing continuously. In this connection the remarkable experience reported by the officers of the Danish ship Nordby on the day preceding the eruption is of much interest as seemingly to show great convulsions of the sea bottom at a point several hundred miles from Martinique. The following is the story told by Captain Eric Lillian Skuld the strange experience of the Nordby. On May 5th, the captain said we touched at St. Michael's for water we had had an easy voyage from Jurgente in Sicily and we wanted to finish an easy run up here we left St. Michael's on the same day nothing worthwhile talking about occurred until two days afterwards Wednesday May 7th we were plotting along slowly that day about noon I took the bridge to make an observation it seemed to be hotter than ordinary I shed my coat and vest and got into what little shade there was as I worked it grew hotter and hotter I didn't know what to make of it along about two o'clock in the afternoon it was so hot that all hands got to talking about it we reckoned that something queer was coming off but none of us could explain what it was you could almost see the pitch softening in the seams then as quick as you could toss the biscuit over its rail the Nordby dropped regularly dropped three or four feet down into the sea no sooner did it do this than big waves that looked like they were coming from all directions at once begin to smash against our sides this was queerer yet because the water a minute before had been as smooth as I ever saw it I had all hands piped on deck and we battened down everything loose to make ready for a storm and we got it all right the strangest storm you ever heard of there was something wrong with the sun and then dark red and then about a quarter to do it went out of sight all together the day got so dark you couldn't see a half a ship's length ahead of you we got our lamps going put on our oil skins ready for a hurricane all of a sudden there came a sheet of lightning that showed up the whole tumbling sea for miles and miles we sort of ducked expecting an awful crash of thunder but it didn't come there was no sound except the big waves pounding against our sides there wasn't a breath of wind well sir at that minute there began the most exciting time I've ever been through and I've been on every sea on the map for 25 years every second there be waves 15 or 20 feet high belting his head on stern on and broadside all at once we could see them coming for without any stop at all flash after flash of lightning was blazing all about us something else we could see too sharks there were hundreds of them on all sides jumping up and down in the water some of them jumped clear out of it and seabirds a flock of them squawking and crying made for our rigging and perch there they seemed like they were scared to death but the queerest part of it all was the water itself it was hot not so hot that our feet couldn't stand it when it washed over the deck but hot enough to make us think it had been heated by some kind of a fire well that sort of thing went on hour after hour the waves the lightning the hot water and the sharks and all the rest of the odd things happening frightened the crew out of their wits some of them prayed out loud I guess the first time they ever did so in their lives some Frenchman aboard kept running around and yelling c'est la dernière this is the last day we were all worried even the officers began to think that the world was coming to an end mighty strange things happen on the sea but this topped them all I kept to the bridge all night when the first hour of morning came the storm was still going on we were all pretty much tired out by that time but there was no such thing as trying to sleep the waves were still batting us around and we didn't know whether we were one mile or a thousand miles from shore at two o'clock in the morning all the queer goings on stopped just the way they began all of a sudden we lay to until daylight then we took our reckonings and started off again we were about seven hundred miles off Cape Henlopen no, sir, you couldn't get me to go through a thing like that again for ten thousand dollars none of us was hurt and the old Nordby herself pulled through all right but I'd sooner stay ashore than see waves without wind and lightning without thunder Fiery Stream contained poisonous gases careful inspection showed that the Fiery Stream which so completely destroyed St. Pierre must have been composed of poisonous gases which instantly suffocated everyone who inhaled them and of other gases burning furiously for nearly all the victims had their hands covering their mouths or when some other attitude showing they had perished from suffocation it is believed that Mount Pelé threw off a great gas of some exceedingly heavy and noxious gas something akin to fire damp which settled upon the city and rendered the inhabitants insensible this was followed by the sheet of flame that swept down the side of the mountain this theory is sustained by the experience of the survivors who were taken from the ships in the harbor as they say their first experience was one of faintness the dumb animals were wiser than man and early took warning of the storm of fire which Mount Pelé was storing up to hurl upon the island even before the mountain began to rumble late in April livestock became uneasy and at times were almost uncontrollable cattle load in the night dogs howled and sought the company of their masters and when driven forth they gave every evidence of fear wild animals disappeared from the vicinity of Mount Pelé even the snakes which at ordinary times are found in great numbers near the volcano crawled away birds ceased singing and left the trees that shaded the sides of Pelé a great fear seemed to be upon the island and though it was shared by the human inhabitants they alone neglected to protect themselves of the villages in the vicinity of Saint Pierre only one escaped the other suffering the fate of the city the fortunate one was Le Carbet on the south which escaped uninjured the flood of lava stopping when within 200 feet of the town Mont Rouge a beautiful summer resort frequented by the people of the island during the hot season as a place of recreation also escaped in the height of the season people gathered there though at the time of explosion there were but a few hundred though located on an elevation between the city and the crater it was by great good fortune saved the governor of Martinique Mr. Mouté whose precautions to prevent the people fleeing from the city aided to make the work of death complete was himself among the victims of the burning mountain with him in this fate was Colonel Dane commander of the troops around the doomed city end of chapter 28 part 2 recording by Mark Appelstadt Parlon, New Jersey