4 



216 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1884. 



on the west and Long on the east. It was considered by Junghuhn to 

 be a continuation of the mountain system on the adjacent west coast of 

 Java, and probably marks the position of an old fissure extending across 

 the strait. It was entirely uninhabited, and only occasionally visited by 

 fisliermen from the neighboring coasts. The series of volcanic phenom- 

 ena of which it was the scene began on ]May20, 1S83, with an eruption, 

 the sound of which was heard at Batavia, 100 miles distant, and which 

 had its seat in the most northern and lowest of the three peaks. Its first 

 effect was the devastation of Long Island and the expulsion of large 

 quantities of sand and pumice. 



A visit to the island some time later showed the scene of this outbreak 

 to have a maximum length of about 100 yards, and from it volumes of 

 vapor and pumice dust were still rising, although as late as August 

 11th, trees were still growing on the main peak, which, indeed, was not 

 active at any time in 1883. 



The volcanic activity continued during June and July, extending in 

 August to the second peak, and reaching a maximum on August 27 ; after 

 that diminishing, but continuing for several days thereafter. The fore- 

 noon of the 27th was marked by a series of explosions, apparently due 

 to the admission of the sea to the crater by the falling in of its north- 

 ern walls. By the greatest of these explosions, occurring about 10 A. M., 

 the whole northern part of the island, probably reduced to a shell by 

 the previous eruptions, and includinghalf of the main peak, was appar- 

 ently blown into the air to an unknown height, the heavier dShris fall- 

 ing partly upon the remaining portions of Krakatoaand Long and Ver- 

 laten, which were entirely covered by the deposit; partly into the sea to 

 the east and northeast, where it formed two new islands, at first of con- 

 siderable extent but which gradually disappeared by the erosion of the 

 waves ; while the finer dust reached the ui)per regions of the atmos- 

 phere and was carried away by the winds, to make its presence evident 

 around the entire globe, and for many months afterward, in the peculiar 

 ruddy glow of the sunset skies, which, first noticed in November, 1883, 

 has not entirely ceased now, in the summer of 1885. 



The noise of the explosion was heard over a circle of 30° radius, com- 

 prising more than one- fifteenth of the entire surface of the earth, and 

 in some directions to even gicater distances. At the island itself the 

 greatest changes occurred. Its area had formerly been 33^ square kil- 

 ometers, of which 23 square kilometers have entirely disappeared; and 

 where there had been a considerable mountain, now the sea has a depth 

 of over 300 meters. The remnant of the original area was increased to 

 15^ square kilometers by additions on the south and southwest sides, 

 while the northern side was left a cliff 800 meters high. The extent 

 of Long and Verlaten was also somewhat increased. Verbeek estimates 

 the amount of ejected material to have exceeded 18 cubic kilometers. 



The ocean wave caused by this convulsion devastated all the adjacent 

 coasts, bringing death to thousands of the inhabitants, and extending 



