2 Introduction 



dominated by several small elevations, extended to the coast 1 . The 

 whole island, from the beach to the summit of Rakata, was covered 

 with an impenetrable forest. Verbeek who paid a short visit in July 

 1880 to the northern part of the uninhabited island, which has since 

 disappeared, found some lava-streams which reached the coast only in 

 the Perboewatan region ; these were covered by a sparse vegetation 

 and their surface was but slightly weathered. The lava-streams 

 were probably formed during the only recorded eruption of 1680. 



For a long time the island had been regarded as an extinct volcano. 

 On May 20th, 1883, a new crater on Perboewatan suddenly became 

 active, the activity being accompanied hj loud explosions which were 

 heard for a considerable distance over Java and Sumatra, and after 

 a few days a large part of the island and a portion of Verlaten island 

 were covered with a layer of ash and pumice to a depth of 1 metre. 

 On the north side of the highest peak, and here and there over the 

 whole of the northern part of Krakatau, stems of trees could still be 

 seen rising above the grey ground as miserable remnants from the 

 former luxuriant forest ; while on the south side of the cone, on 

 Lang island and on a fourth island, Poelsche Hoed (Polish Hat), 

 situated between Lang and Verlaten islands, which has completely 

 disappeared since the eruption of August 2 7th, the vegetation suffered 

 but little. 



In June a second crater was formed at the foot of Danan, which 

 threw out ashes and pumice. At the beginning of August a third 

 crater, together with numerous fissures which gave off steam and 

 smoke, appeared on the southern slope of Danan ; this was after- 

 wards completely shattered and served as the main crater during 

 the last eruptions. 



The outbursts increased in frequency and culminated in the 

 terrible catastrophe of August 26th and 27th, the effects of which 

 were felt over almost the whole surface of the earth. The explosions 

 were heard not only throughout the Malay Archipelago, but also in 

 Ceylon, Burma, Manilla, New Guinea and on the west coast of 

 Australia 2 . At Batavia and Buitenzorg in Java, 150 kilometres 

 [92h miles] from the scene of the explosion, the noise resembled 

 artillery fire at close range 3 . The vibrations made the window-panes 



I 1 See the outline section of Krakatau published in " The Eruption of Krakatoa 

 and subsequent Phenomena" (Report of the Royal Society Committee), p. 6, fig. 4, 

 London, 1888.] 



[ 2 For map showing the places at which the sounds of the explosions were heard 

 on Aug. 26, 27, see Rep. Roy. Soc. PI. XVI.] 



[ 3 The most remote place at which sounds were heard is said to be Rodriguez, 

 nearly 3000 miles from Krakatau. Rep. Roy. Soc. p. 79.] 



