137 
And at ill. 13 picturing the island of Sebesy viewed from the 
N—E side he says: “when 6 years ago (1877) I visited the 
island of Sebesy, and saw there in the plain near the sea the 
four thriving villages with their good sawahs and pepper-gardens, 
I could not have thought to find everything in such a state 
as was now the case (1883). Viewed from what is now Huisman’s 
Kiland (properly speaking Pulu Mengunang) the mountains of 
Sebesy display the aspect shown in ill. 13. It is a singularly 
mournful scene, a picture of utter desolation. The forest has 
entirely vanished, the thickness of the layers of ashes and 
pumice stone is from 1—1'/, M.; everywhere in the ashes deep 
narrow gullies had been washed out, which with their ramifi- 
cations from a distance conveyed an impression as if the moun- 
tains were strewn with dead timber. In the plain an occasional 
tree-stump rears itself above the ashes.” 
From this quotation it is apparent that also of this island 
the vegetation was entirely destroyed, and it is certainly remar- 
kable and regrettable that none of the botanists who investigated 
the renewed flora of Krakatau should have made similar res- 
earches into that of Sebesy. 
Considering the rich flora which now exists at Krakatau it 
has sometimes been doubted whether all vegetable life had been 
killed by the eruption, thus questioning the accuracy of the 
reports of the first investigators, such as Verbeek and Trevs 
and also of van Sanpick '). As an instance is given the occur- 
rence of a big Cycas plant which was found on the excursion 
described by Ernst, for it was supposed that the growth of 
Cycas-plants was slow. But I have seen proofs to the contrary. 
In the eruption the Northern half of the island of Krakatau 
completely disappeared, the mountain there rises almost per- 
pendicularly from the sea. On that coast which therefore had | 
been formerly a few hundred Meters beneath the surface, there 
has now formed a little stretch of beach. This beach was also 
visited by Ernst in 1906 but he makes no mention of the oc- 
currence there of two Cycas-plants, which are now considerably 
R. A. van Sanpick, In het Rijk van Vulkaan. Zutfen 1890, p. 186. 
Ann. Jard. Bot. Buitenz. Dl. XXXII. 
