st after we were wrecked that we were to get help from a ship
that passed us. We burned blue lights, but she kept on. We learned
afterward that she was the Roddam."

Soundings made off Martinique after the explosion showed that 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 shore line, and then came back
steaming with fury; this indicating a lift and fall of the ocean bed off
the isle. Soundings made subsequently near the island found in one place
a depth of 4,000 feet where before it had been only 600 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 for future navigation. The changes
in sea levels were not confined to the immediate centre of volcanic
activity, but extended as far north as Porto Rico, and it was believed
that the seismic wave would be found to have altered the ocean bed round
Jamaica. Vessels plying between St. Thomas, Martinique, 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 of the island had dropped into the sea. Soundings 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
continually.

In this connection the remarkable experience reported by the officers
of the Danish steamship Nordby, on the day preceding the eruption, is of
much interest, as seeming 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 Lillien-skjold:

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 Girg