THE VOLCANIC ERUPTION OF KRAKATAU. 369 



were observed ; while in the mountains farther to the southwest they 

 were even more pronounced, and the Karang, a mountain situated 

 about west from Batavia, it was thought must be the seat of disturb- 

 ance. By this time the general opinion had decidedly ascribed to the 

 west or northwest the direction whence the movements were proceed- 

 ing. Krakatau itself was even named ; but some of the Sumatran 

 mountains were considered more likely to be the delinquents. Bata- 

 via being connected with that island by a telegraph line passing along 

 the north coast of Java to Anjer, across the Straits of Sunda to Telok- 

 betong, thence northward to Palembang on the east, and to Padang 

 on the west coast, intelligence from all parts soon began to come in ; 

 but none of any eruption anywhere, beyond the notice of the fall of 

 ashes mentioned above. Anjer telegraphed, "Nothing of the nature 

 of an earthquake known or felt here." This was dated the 21st ; a mes- 

 sage in much the same terms had been received on the previous day, 

 as well as the report of one of the Government officials to the follow- 

 ing effect : " On Sunday morning, the 20th, I landed at Anjer, and 

 there staid till one o'clock in the afternoon ; at half -past three I 

 reached Serang, and halted an hour. Neither I nor my coachman, 

 either at Anjer or at Serang, or on my whole journey to Tangerang 

 (near Batavia), felt or heard any earthquake or disturbance, or any- 

 thing at all remarkable." 



Anjer lies on the narrowest part of the Sunda Strait, twenty-seven 

 miles from Krakatau, which formed a prominent object in one's sea- 

 ward view from the veranda of its quiet little hotel on the sea-mar- 

 gin. This hotel was kejDt by one of Lloyd's agents, Mr. Schuit (whose 

 family perished in the subsequent disaster), who had in his veranda 

 a powerful telescope for reading the signals of ships for report to 

 Batavia, and by whom consequently any occurrence in the strait 

 could scarcely fail to be observed. Thus during the period of great- 

 est disturbance in Batavia and Buitenzorg, when men there were re- 

 ferring the origin to Krakatau, eighty miles away, at Anjer, only 

 twenty-seven miles distant from it, nothing was felt or heard. The 

 same report was made from Merak, likewise situated on the straits, 

 thirty-five miles from and presenting a clear outlook to the volcano. 

 The winds prevalent in this region during the month of May are from 

 the east, and would tend to drive any smoke and ashes toward the 

 Indian Ocean, which might explain their not being detected from 

 Anjer ; but the direction of the wind fails to account for the entire 

 absence in that and the surrounding villages of the phenomena Avhich 

 were most conspicuous in Batavia. 



Not till the evening of the 21st was smoke observed to be issuing 

 from Krakatau ; on the 22d the volcanic vent there seems to have 

 been fully established, and the vibrations and other phenomena ex- 

 perienced in Batavia quickly subsided. Now, in a letter to " Nature," 

 Mr. H. O. Forbes has recorded the passage, during the 11th and 12th 

 TOL. xxy. — 24 



