The Volcano's Deadly Work - 1902 Author:Charles Morris Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. The Island of Martinique and the City of St. Pierre. SAINT PIERRE is the principal city of the French island of Martinique, having a popula... more »tion of over 25,000, and is one of the most important cities in the Lesser Antilles. Situated on the west coast of the island of Martinique, the town faces an open roadstead sheltered by high mountains from the easterly trade winds, and affording anchorage for hundreds of vessels. The town proper is built on the slope of a high range of hills separated by a valley and a small stream, which have been made into a park, with stately avenues extending up the valley to the rear of the town, where it joins what is conceded to be the handsomest botanical garden in the West Indies. Originally it was built entirely of stone. After several earthquakes, which resulted in terrible loss of life, the inhabitants built their houses of wood. Then the town was fire swept and stone was again used as the general building material. After several earthquakes wood once more was used, but the place was destroyed by fire again about eight years ago. The streets of the town, while narrow, are paved, with broad gutters in the centre, down which flows a steady stream of water from springs in the hills, keeping the streets in a condition of nearly absolute cleanliness. Adjoining the city on the north are several large sugar factories, including the Guerin Works, one ofthe largest in the West Indies. A tramway connects the southern portion of the city with the northern, a peculiar feature of the line being the women conductors. The motive power is mules. In addition to the many factories producing sugar, rum and Florida water, Saint Pierre is the distributing point of the French West Indies and for French Guiana. Two handsome cathedrals, the new...« less