It seems probable that Martinique must after all be aban-
doned. Mont Pelee has broken out afresh, and on August 30th destroyed Morne Rouge. the watering-place of the island, and many villages in the central districts. The instrument of destruction was boiling mud. From eight hundred to a thousand persons were killed at once, and there is no proof that the active malignity of the volcano is exhausted. Indeed the evidence rather points to the fact that the island itself is sinking as Krakatoa sank, one district having already been .submerged. The difficulty of removing the population is very great, but does not arise from the unhappy people themselves, who, usually apathetic, are frenzied with terror, and ready to go anywhere so that they may have assurance of safety. Their natural destination would be Guadaloupe, but it is by no means certain that Guadalonpe is safe, or, for that matter, St. Vincent either. The whole earthquake belt of the West Indies is in violent commotion, and we must wait weeks to know the limit of the destructive forces at work. They are always believed to exhaust themselves in these great efforts; but then that was believed about the first eruption. Ulti- mately the amazing fertility of the island will again attract colonists, but for the present it must, we fear, be considered hopelessly ruined.
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