A scientific committee was formed and its members organized an exploration of the eruptive center.

(…)
As we climbed the mountain, the layer of mud got thicker, the feet sank into it and it was tough to pull them out. Unluckily for those with bad shoes! Meanwhile, the ridge we were walking on got narrower, and at some point , on our right, the East side, was the ravine of the Blanche river ; on our left, the West side, was the ravine of Claire river where the smoke was coming from. We were walking on the edge of the ravine along a 50-60 yards ridge. At our feet, was now, the ravine or valley of Claire river.
We were able then to fully understand the effects of the August 5th eruption. The greenery had completely been removed from the place where it was once the everlasting occupant. Trees, leaves, flowers, everything was wrapped as in a grayish shroud. It was the emptiness of winter with its bare trees, dirtied with a black snow. (…)

A gloomy silence, a sky darkened by vapors, an atmosphere filled with a strong smell of hydrogen sulfide, made the whole scene comparable to the Tartar. The slope of the ravine is very steep and runs from East to West, from the top of the peak of mount Pelée, known as Morne Lacroix. But the ground is uneven, it has numerous cliffs ; here and there, in the dominant gray cover, we could see several cracks where the soil was bare. The cracks are minor landslides probably caused by the vapors exhaled by the volcano or made by its tremors.

(…)

Up in the valley, two sprays of a whitish smoke reveal two vents which throw mud on the valley and in the surrounding areas, covering them. (…) A barometric height measured there showed an elevation of 3168 ft. from sea level.

(…)

We were then able to assess that the radius of the devastation was more than 800 to 900 yards.