ERUPTION OF THE KLUTI. 75 



eruption were evident in all directions. Mr. La Rona told 

 me that there must have been upwards of half a mile of drift 

 timber collected against the bridge, which forcing its way 

 through, destroyed the greater part of the structure, the 

 massive brick portion having been pushed bodily out of its 

 position. They told me that the water of the river at Kediri, 

 although some thirty miles distant from the volcano, was so 

 hot on the night of the eruption that the hand placed in it 

 could scarcely be kept there a moment. An immense mass 

 of boiling mud and water was carried down, intermixed with 

 thousands of dead and dying fish, parboiled bodies of tigers, 

 banting, deer, monkeys and wild pigs, the torrent of boiling 

 water having flowed over some eight miles of jungle before 

 it arrived at the tributary stream and thence into the Kediri 

 river. Several villages were destroyed, but happily few 

 lives, as the villagers had warning, and had taken flight at 

 the first rumblings of the mountain. By all accounts the 

 eruption must have been a most awful sight, the loud con- 

 cussions and reports were like a tremendous cannonade 

 with intervals of small arms firing, like a naval engagement, 

 so much so that in many places the natives had the idea that 

 the English had arrived and were taking the island. The 

 sound appeared to travel only in one direction, along the line 

 of mountains to the west ; at Soerabaja to the east, the first 

 intimation of anything going on was the mass of mud, 

 carcases of dead animals and drift timber brought down by 

 the river — not a sound had been heard. 



At Kediri I called on the Regent, who has a very nice 

 house ; he is reported to be a dashing fellow, and will sit up 

 and drink and play at cards with you as long as you like. He 

 holds the rank of captain in one of the Dutch regiments, and 



