THOUGHTS ABOUT KRAKATOA. 321 



the extensive printed literature relating to Krakatoa had 

 to be ransacked. At length, however, by the spring of 

 1887, the manuscript was completed, and, in the autumn 

 of 1888, a superb quarto volume of nearly 500 pages, 

 copiously illustrated both by artistic drawings and by 

 charts and maps, was issued. 



Midway between Sumatra and Java lies a group of 

 small islands, which, prior to 1883, were beautified by the 

 dense forests and glorious vegetation of the tropics. Of 

 these islands Krakatoa was the chief, though even of it 

 but little was known. Its appearance from the sea must, 

 indeed, have been familiar to the crews of the many 

 vessels that navigated the Straits of Sunda, but it was not 

 regularly inhabited. Glowing with tropical verdure, such 

 an island seemed an unlikely theatre for the display of an 

 unparalleled effect of plutonic energy, but yet there were 

 certain circumstances which may tend to lessen our sur- 

 prise at the outbreak. In the first place, as Professor 

 Judd has so clearly pointed out, not only is Krakatoa 

 situated in a region famous, or perhaps infamous, for 

 volcanoes and earthquakes, but it actually happens to lie 

 at the intersection of two main lines, along which volcanic 

 phenomena are, in some degree, perennial. In the second 

 place, history records that there have been previous erup- 

 tions at Krakatoa. The last of these appears to have 

 occurred in May, 1680, but unfortunately only imperfect 

 accounts of it have been preserved. It seems, however, 

 to have annihilated the forests on the island, and to have 

 ejected vast quantities of pumice, which cumbered the 

 seas around. Krakatoa then remained active for a year 

 and a half, after which the mighty fires subsided. The 



