32 



NATURE 



l^Nov. 8, 1 88: 



Fortunately the district as a whole was not very populous. 

 According to the Royal Atnianaciox 18S3 there was on an 

 area of nearly 10,100 Englishsquare miles a population of 70 

 Europeans (excluding the military force), 128,939 natives, 

 255 Chinese, and 154 Arabian and other foreign races. 

 No exact estimate of the loss amongst these has yet 

 reached Europe ; all we know is that it has been very 

 great, and the destruction to property not less so. 

 Except the three parallel chains of volcanic origin which 

 stretch from north-west to south-east in the three pro- 

 montories already mentioned, the country is flat and 

 monotonous, and covered with thick woods. In these 

 are the scattered villages and fields of the native popula- 

 tion. 



On the opposite coast of Java it is the Residency of 

 Bantam which has borne the full brunt of the wave. 

 We learn that at Tjiringin and Anjer it reached a height 

 of nearly 100 feet. Accordingly all along the coast from 

 Java's First Point to Anjer everything must have perished. 

 And although no accurate or detailed returns of the 

 number of lives lost in this district have yet come in, it 

 may perhaps help us to form some conception of what it 

 will probably amount to if we state that Bantam, on an 

 area of about 3200 square miles, had a population of 350 

 Europeans, 565,438 natives, 1479 Chinese, and 21 Arabs 

 and others. Between Java's First Point and the country 

 to the south of Tjiringin a range of low hills, by alter- 

 nately advancing and receding from the coast, formed 

 several small bays and coves, the shores of which were 

 more or less thickly studded with native villages and 

 flourishing tracts of cultivated soil. But these were less 

 frequent in the western part on account of the tigers. On 

 the eastern margin of Pepper Bay, south of Tjiringin, the 

 country was more flit and level, and, preserving this 

 character, extended farther inland. But from Tjiringin 

 to Anjer the mountains approached close to the sea. 

 Along their base ran the chief highway to Anjer, thickly 

 set with prosperous villages, while several others hung on 

 the slopes. Here the full force of the great wave was 

 expended ; being broken against the rocky walls, it seems 

 to have swept round them on the north and south and to 

 have completely covered the lower-lying districts about 

 Anjer and Tjiringin. South of Anjer was a bay and 

 small valley running eastwards into the land and bordered 

 by ranges of hills called Kramat Watu, which form the 

 connecting link between the mountain systems to the 

 north and south of this point. The sea is now said to 

 wash the foot of these hills, the invasion having come 

 from the west. It has been already stated that Tjiringin, 

 Anjer, and Merak have disappeared ; and all the ground 

 which the inundations have not swept away is now covered 

 with ashes. Tjiringin had six European households, 

 while in Anjer and Merak together there were twenty- 

 two. 



Further reports, necessarily imperfect, have come in of 

 the ruin caused by the inundations along the whole extent 

 of the north coast of Java right away to Batavia, and even 

 still farther. Bridges have been swept away, dams broken 

 down, villages swamped, and the cultivated land washed 

 bare by the floods, causing, as everywhere else where 

 they appeared, great losses of life and still greater losses 

 in property. In Tanara alone 700 corpses have been 

 already found. Notwithstanding the facts that the ocean 

 wave, when once it had emerged into the Indian (Jcean 

 southwards and into the Java Sea northwards, had more 

 room for expansion, that the Javan coast then formed a 

 kind of angle running back into the land, and that seve- 

 ral small islands to the north of Batavia acted as a sort 

 of breakwater, the great wave still possessed such strength 

 that it drove a man-of-war ashore on one of these islands 

 and tore away its floating deck. At Tandjong Priok the 

 sea was observed (unfortunately the time is not given) to 

 rise to a height of more than seven feet above the normal 

 level, and then immediately afterwards to sink ten feet 



below that point, thus giving a difference of seventeen 

 feet, while the average difference between ebb and flow is 

 not quite three feet. The water poured in through the 

 narrow opening (410 feet wide) isetween the inner and 

 outer harbours like a waterfall, and, having filled the 

 basins, flowed out again in the same manner. 



According to the accounts received up to the present 

 time, everything to beyond Pandeglang (south of Serang) 

 is covered with ashes, and everything that was in the 

 fields has perished. Very considerable damage has also 

 been done to the lightly constructed bamboo houses by 

 the shower of ashes, so that more than half the population 

 (the north-east portion of the district is by far the most 

 populous) are without means of sustenance, and, what is 

 of far graver consequence, without fodder for their cattle. 

 Appalled by the eruption, and dreading the famine that 

 would soon stare them in the face, they have, it is said, 

 taken to flight, carrying oft' with them what they could, 

 and leaving their territorial possessions in the lurch. 

 It is probable, however, that this has only been in the 

 first moments of terror, for the native is wont to cling 

 tenaciously to his hereditary soil. It is to be hoped that 

 the Government Commissioner will succeed in furnishing 

 assistance, and that speedily and in no stinted measure, 

 to these especially unfortunate people. For years they 

 have been visited by epidemics, and have suffered great 

 losses from murrains amongst their cattle. Indeed, during 

 the last year alone, the population has fallen off 10 per 

 cent, in numbers ; and what makes the case so much the 

 worse is that the Government itself has experienced from 

 this disaster losses in public works and in its extensive 

 coffee plantations which nray safely be reckoned in 

 millions. 



What, however, was the immediate cause of this ocean 

 wave, whether occasioned by the rising of sixteen new 

 islands (active volcanoes.') between Krakatoa and Sebisi, 

 or by the falling in of the cone of the former island (or 

 whatever be the part of it which has disappeared), or 

 whether both causes have co-operated together, must 

 remain more or less matter for conjecture until we have 

 more authoritative details, based on scientific examina- 

 tion of the scene of the disaster. J. T. Bealby 



Mr. Meldrum contributes to the Mauritius Mercantile 

 Record fresh information on the tidal phenomenon of 

 August 27 last, a condensed statement of which may be 

 given here in connection with the above : — 



At Cassis, during the whole day, the water was coming 

 and going, but the movement was not tal<en much notice 

 of till about 1.30 p.m. The tide on that day did not rise 

 as usual. The water came with a swirl round the point 

 of the sea wall, and in about a couple of minutes returned 

 with the same speed. This took place several times. 

 Similar phenomena occurred on the 28th, but to a much 

 smaller extent. 



At the St. Brandon Islands on August 27, Capt. Rault's 

 vessel was anchored on the west-north-west side of 

 Avocaire Island in 3J fathoms, a cable's length off shore, 

 when at 3 p.m. the water began to rise 20 feet above 

 the highest point attained by high water. It was then ebb 

 tide. Quickly the water receded with a very rapid 

 motion, leaving everything dry, showing out the shoal 

 patches quite dry, to a very long distance from the 

 island. Before fifteen minutes had elapsed the water 

 rose again with the same velocity for the second time, 

 coming up to the first niark. It was not a wave, nor a 

 billow, nor a high sea ; the water was smooth, except 

 where there were heads of coral, and there a few wave- 

 lets only were produced. This motion of the water back- 

 wards and forwards lasted up to 7 o'clock p.m., the inter- 

 vals between low water and high water being greater 

 towards the evening ; at first the intervals were about ten 

 minutes, and towards six o'clock twenty minutes. The 

 current was setting towards east-north-east of the com- 



