Oct. ii, 1883] 



NA TURE 



577 



viewed with the naked eye ; but, being obscured as it was by 

 the haze, the spot was distinctly visible to all. 



Ongole, India, September 14 W. R. Manley 



[Mr. Manley sends us several letters from the Madras Mail 

 on the phenomenon ; from these « e give the following extract, 

 dated September 10 : — ] 



A. T. M. writes : — " Unlike his usual custom the sun rose this 

 morning clothed as it were in bright blue colour, rendering the 

 whole horizon and all beneath it of the same hue. The pure, 

 colourless river water looked as if it was just let out of an indigo 

 vat Even the green fields with grass and trees about looked 

 blue. Our whitewashed house also had a temporary change of 

 colour. This phenomenon lasted from 6 to 10 a. m" 



The same phenomenon seems to have been observed in 

 Trinidad on the afternoon of Sunday, September 2. Mr. J. 

 Arnold, writing to the Times, gives the following extract from a 

 correspondent's letter from Port of Spain : — 



" We have been having very curious weather ; last Sunday, 

 about five o'clock, the sun looked like a blue globe, and with 

 the aid of a small telescope I saw plainly three dark spots on it. 

 After dark we thought there was a fire in the town from the 

 bright redness of the heavens." Mr. Arnold adds: "All my 

 correspondents agree as to the blue colour, and several seem to 

 have noticed the spots. This occurrence, which was held to 

 foretell bad weather, took place three days before the cyclone 

 that swept Martinique." 



THE JAVA ERUPTION 



""THE following details concerning this catastrophe have been 

 sent by Lloyd's agents at Batavia, under date of Sept. 1 : — 

 "The past week is memorable as having witnessed one of the 

 most disastrous and severe volcanic eruptions ever known in the 

 Malay Archipelago. Krakatoa has again been the origin of the 

 disturbance. On Sunday last, about 4 p.m., a series of detona- 

 tions were heard proceeding apparently from the south-west. 

 Towards night these grew louder, till in the early morning the 

 reports and concussions were simply deafening, not to say 

 alarming. When day broke the atmosphere to the west had a 

 sulphurous and lurid appearance, and a thin layer of fine white 

 ash covered the ground. Towards 9 a.m. the reports died away, 

 but about an hour later dark clouds quite obscured the sky and 

 the sun. A heavy rain of ashes, sulphur, and dust commenced 

 to fall, and at 11 a.m. this town was in pitch darkness and 

 business totally su.-pended. About twelve o'clock (midday) a large 

 wave about seventeen feet in height swept in from the sea, 

 causing many prows and small craft to be driven ashore, but 

 doing but little damage to the shipping in harbour. This being 

 the dry monsoon, the rivers are low at present. The wave, how- 

 ever, drove an immeuse volume of water up our risers, which 

 suddenly rose so high that the banks at the river mouth were 

 flooded and many small crafts stranded. Happily the wave sub- 

 sided again suddenly, leaving the rivers almost dry, and about 

 one o'clock the rain of ashes subsided and the atmosphere grew 

 lighter. Shortly after 2 p.m., however, another wave, largei 

 tban the first, ewe rolling in from the sea. A few native 

 fishermen were drowned by this wave, and two Europeans at 

 Onrust also lost their lives. At Tandjong Priok the Princess 

 Wilhetmina was within an ace of stranding, while some small 

 crafts and prows were cast high up on land. No further 

 damage, however, occurred in Batavia. The eruption, however, 

 so far as we can learn, has had most fatal and disastrous effects 

 all along the south-west coast of Java, and also on the 

 south coast of Sumatra. We shall not probably be in 

 possession of full particulars for some days yet, as telegraph 

 lines are damaged and roads destroyed, but so far we can 

 give the following particulars. The Island of Krakatoa, the 

 summit of which peak was 2600 feet above water level, has 

 totally disappeared below the sea, and the neighbouring Island 

 of Dwaisindeweg is split in five parts. Sixteen new volcanic 

 islands have been formed between Krakatoa and Sibesie, and 

 the sea bottom in the Straits of Sunda has completely changed. 

 In fact the Admiral Commauding-in-Chief has issued a circular 

 stating that till new soundings have been taken the navigation 

 of the Straits of Sunda is likely to be extremely dangerous. 

 Anjer and lighthouse and the other lights of sooth-west Java 

 have all been destroyed. The subsidences and upheavals we 

 have alluded to caused a large wave about 100 feet in height to 

 sweep down on the south-west coast of Java and south of 

 Sumatra. This wave swept inland for a great distance, thereby 



doing great injury both to life and property. We are here only 

 twelve miles away from one of the points on which the wave 

 spent its fury. The whole coastline to the south-west has 

 changed its configuration. The inhabitants of the Island of Onrust 

 were only saved from the flood which swept over the island by 

 taking refuge on board two steamers. At Merak Government 

 establishment the inhabitants took refuge on the knoll, 50 feet 

 high, but were all swept off and drowned, with the exception of 

 one European and two Malays, who were saved. Mauk and 

 Kramat, west side of Batavia Roads, have been laid waste, 

 and about 300 lives lost. In Tjeringin only one hou-e has 

 been left standing. Both the native and European officials 

 have perished. A rain of mud also fell at the above place, 

 which is situated opposite to where Krakatoa Island once lay. 

 Anjer seems to have been completely destroyed. Lloyd's sub- 

 agent there wires from Serang : ' All gone. Plenty lives lost.' 

 The dry dock at Amsterdam Island was carried away by the 

 waves, but has since been found stranded in Middleberg Island. 

 The Padang steamer, which left here on Sunday, returned 

 next day to Anjer, only to find the place in ruins. The captain 

 reports that his vessel was in great danger, owing to the erup- 

 tion from Krakatoa. On his arrival at Telok Betong, his first 

 port of call, the place was found completely destroyed. We 

 understand that it has been submeiged, but are not yet in pos- 

 session of full particulars. We hear that on Monday the whole 

 of Wet Java, as far as Banding, was shrouded in darkness and 

 covered by ash rains. A telegram just in informs us that the 

 explosions from Krakatoa were heard at Deli (Sumatra), which 

 place is opposite Penang. The Government here, we under- 

 stand, in the interest of shipping, are sending out steamers to 

 cruise at either end of the Straits of Sunda, to warn vessels to 

 observe caution while passing the Straits, as charts are no longer 

 reliable. According to latest telegram from Serang we learn 

 that in the residence of Tjeringin alone 10,000 lives were calcu- 

 lated to be lost. The Padang steamer just in reports that it is 

 impossible to approach to the place where Telok Betong once 

 was situated, owing to the sea being filled with pumice stone 

 and mud. In some parts of Sumatra Straits the pumice stone is 

 seven to eight feet deep." 



THE BRITISH ASSOCIA TION 



SECTION C— Geologv 



On some Fossil Fish Remains found in the Upper Beds of the 

 Yoredale Series at Leylmrn, in Yorkshire, by James W. Davis, 

 F.G.S. — The red limestone forms the upper part of the main 

 ne of Phillips, being separated from it by only one foot 

 of shale or plate. It is about 100 feet below the millstone grits, 

 the intermediate beds being composed of grits and shales with 

 one bed of limestone about 16 or iS feet thick. A peculiar 

 aggregation of fish remains has been discovered in the red beds 

 by Mr. Wm. Home of Leyburn, They comprise nearly forty 

 species, the majority of which are peculiar to the beds ; others 

 like Cloiiodus and Petalodus are common to the Mountain Lime- 

 stone, and do not appear to differ either in size or otherwise 

 from those of the lower massive limestone. The representatives 

 of the genera Piamodus, Cochliodus, and Polyrhizodns, which 

 are found abundantly in the lower limestone, and are of great 

 size and importance, are in this locality comparatively small and 

 rare, and appear to indicate that the fishes they represent were 

 gradually becoming extinct. Their representatives are not known 

 to occur in the superimposed Millstone Grits either in this 

 locality or any other. There are in addition species of Mega- 

 lichthys and Pleurodus, which are characteristic of the coal 

 measures. The presence of so varied a fauna naturally leads to 

 the inference that the circumstances under which they existed 

 were not those usually characteristic of the aggregation of lime- 

 stones, but rather indicate a shallow or shore deposit with occa- 

 sional influxes of fresh water. Megalichthys and Pleurodus are 

 fishes which in the coal measures probably lived in fresh or 

 brackish water ; and though they may have been adapted to 

 exist in marine conditions, the occurrence of beds of sand and 

 shale intercalated with the thin limestones of the Yoredales 

 evidently shows the proximity of land, and it is probable that 

 they were carried to their present position by rivers, and there 

 deposited with the marine forms with which they are associated. 

 The supposition that the water was brackish may account for 

 the small size of some of the genera already mentioned and their 

 final extinction in the grits and shales which succeed the limestone 

 The great fishes whose remains are found in the lower lime 



