s the chief export.

In an island only eighteen miles long by eleven broad there is not room
for any distinctly marked mountain range. The whole of St. Vincent, in
fact, is a fantastic tumble of hills, culminating in the volcanic ridge
which runs lengthwise of the oval-shaped island. The culminating peak of
the great volcanic mass, for St. Vincent is nothing more, is Mont Garou,
of which La Soufriere is a sort of lofty excrescence in the northwest,
4,048 feet high, and flanking the main peak at some distance away.

It may be said that all the volcanic mountains in this part of the West
Indies have what the people call a "soufriere"--a "sulphur pit," or
"sulphur crater"--the name coming, as in the case of past disturbances
of Mont Pelee, from the strong stench of sulphuretted hydrogen which
issues from them when the volcano becomes agitated.

In 1812 it was La Soufriere adjacent to Mont Garou which broke loose on
the island of St. Vincent, and it is the same Soufriere which again has
devastated the island and has bombarded Kingstown with rocks, lava and
ashes.

The old crater of Mont Garou has long been extinct, and, like the old
crater of Mont Pelee, near St. Pierre, it had far down in its depths,
surrounded by sheer cliffs from 500 to 800 feet high, a lake. Glimpses
of the lake of Mont Garou are difficult to get, owing to the thick
verdure growing about the dangerous edges of the precipices, but those
who have seen it describe it as a beautiful sheet of deep blue water.

THE APPEARANCE OF THE SOUFRIERE

Previous to the eruption of 1812 the appearance of the Soufriere was
most interesting. The crater was half a mile in diameter and five
hundred feet in depth. In its centre was a conical hill, fringed with
shrubs and vines; at whose base were two small lakes, one sulphurous,
the other pure and tasteless. This lovely and beautiful spot was
rendered more interesting by the singularly melodious notes of a bird,
an inhabitant of these upper solitudes, and altogether unknown to the
other parts of the island--hence called, or supposed to be, "invisible,"
as it had never been seen. (It is of interest to state that Frederick
A. Ober, in a visit to the island some twenty years ago, succeeded in
obtaining specimens of this previously unknown bird.) From the fissures
of the cone a thin white smoke exuded, occasionally tinged with a light
blue flame. Evergreens, flowers and aromatic shrubs clothed the steep
sides of the cr