366 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



breadth, culminating in two elevations, the taller of which, known as 

 the Peak of Krakatau, rises (or did rise) s"ome 2,750 feet above the sea. 

 Surrounding it on all sides are numerous volcanic cones. The Tenga- 

 moes (or Kaiser's Peak) to its northwest is situated at the head of 

 the Semangka Bay, and the quiescent Rajabasa to its northeast in 

 the southern promontory of Sumatra ; in the east by south the Ka- 

 rang smolders in Bantam, and southeast rise the active cones of the 

 Buitenzorg Mountains. Standing in the straits and very little to the 

 north of Krakatau are the two dormant or dead cones of Sebesie and 

 Sebooko. A line drawn from Rajabasa, passing along the western 

 side of Krakatau, and continued thence to Prince's Island, which 

 lies off Java Head, would mark the boundary on the eastward side of 

 the shallow Java Sea, which rarely exceeds fifty fathoms, and on the 

 west side of the deep Indian Ocean. On looking at the accompanying 

 map of the locality before the eruption it will be seen that close to the 

 east and northwest sides of Krakatau there are two small fragments 

 of land, Lang and Verlatin Islands respectively. It is Mr. Norman 

 Lockyer's opinion that these are two higher edges of the old rim of a 

 subsided crater, overflowed in part by the sea through inequalities in 

 the margin between them ; that the heights on Krakatau itself, the 

 remaining portion of the old volcano summit, are cones elevated on 

 this old crater-floor ; and that the ancient funnel is practically coex- 

 tensive with the area inclosed by these three islets, though till the 

 20th of May last blocked up by volcanic debris. 



The earliest accounts of Krakatau we have been able to obtain are 

 contained in a curious old volume, " Aenmerckelijke Reysen van Elias 

 Hesse nae en in Oost-Indien van't jaar 1680 tot 1684" ("Remarkable 

 Journeys of Elias Hesse to the East Indies from the Year 1680 to 

 1684"), published in Utrecht in 1694. The author relates that he 

 passed on the 19th of November, 1681, " the Island of Cracatouw, 

 which is uninhabited. It had about a year before broken out in erup- 

 tion. It can be seen far at sea, when one is still many miles distant 

 from it, on account of the continually ascending smoke of the fire ; 

 M'C were with our ship very close under the shore ; we could perfectly 

 well and accurately see the wholly burned trees on the top of the 

 mountain, but not the fire itself." About the same period Johann Wil- 

 helm Vogel, one of the Dutch East India Company's servants, who 

 published in 1716 a very interesting account of his travels there, 

 passed through the straits. He says : " On February 1, 1681, by God's 

 help, in front of the Straits of Sunda, where, with great astonishment, 

 I saw that the island of Cracketouw, which on my former journey to 

 Sumatra appeared so very green and gay with trees, lay now altogether 

 burned up and waste before our eyes, and spued out fire from great 

 fire-holes. And on inquiry at the ship, Captain . . ., at what time it 

 broke out, ... I was told that it was in May, 1680. . . . The former 

 year, and when he was on his voyage from Bengal, he had met with a 



