470 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. II., No. 35. 



middle of the north part of the passage between Java 

 and Sumatra, a passage which has formed an impor- 

 tant commercial route. The strait is about seventy 

 miles long and sixty broad at the south-west end, 

 narrowing to thirteen miles at the north-east end. 

 The island, seven miles long by five broad, lay about 

 thirty miles from the coast of Java; and northwards 

 the strait contracts like a funnel, the two coasts in 

 that direction approaching very near to each other. 

 A few weeks ago, as we intimated at the time, the 

 volcano on the island began to manifest renewed 

 activity. The whole region is volcanic; Java itself 

 having at least sixteen active volcanoes, while many 

 others can only be regarded as quiescent, not extinct. 

 Various parts of the island have been frequently 

 devastated by volcanic outbursts, one of the most 

 disastrous of tliese having proceeded from a volcano 

 which was regarded as having been long extinct. 

 The present outburst in Krakatoa seems to have 

 reached a crisis on the night of Aug. 26. The deto- 

 nations were lieard as far as Soerakarta; and ashes 

 fell at Cheribon, about 250 miles eastwards on the 

 north coast of Java. The whole sky over western 

 Java was darkened with ashes; and, when investiga- 

 tion became possible, it was found that the most 

 wide-spread disaster had occurred. The greater part. 

 of the district of North Bantam has been destroyed, 

 partly by the ashes which fell, and partly by an enor- 

 mous wave generated by the wide-spread volcanic dis- 

 turbance in the bed of the strait. The town of An jer, 

 and other towns on the coast, have been overwhelmed 

 and swept away; and the loss of life is estimated at 

 100,000. The island of Krakatoa itself, estimated to 

 contain 8,000,000,000 cubic yards of material, seems 

 to have been shattered, and sunlc beneath the waters; 

 while sixteen volcanic craters have appeared above 

 the sea between the, site of that island and Sibisi 

 Island, where the sea is comparatively shallow. The 

 Soengepan volcano has split into iive; and it is stated 

 that an extensive plain of ' volcanic stone ' has been 

 formed in the sea, near Lampong, Sumatra, probably 

 at a part of the coast dotted with small islands. A 

 vessel near the site of the eruption had its deck 

 covered with ashes eighteen inches deep, and passed 

 masses of pumice-stone seven feet in depth. The 

 wave reached the coast of Java on the morning of the 

 27th, and, thirty metres high, swept the coast between 

 Merak and Tjiringin, totally destroying Anjer, Meralv, 

 and Tjiringin. Five miles of the coast of Sumatra 

 seem to have been swept by the wave, and many lives 

 lost. At Taujong Priok, fifty-eight miles distant 

 from Krakatoa, a sea seven feet and a half higher 

 than the ordinary highest level suddenly rushed in, 

 and overwhelmed the place. Immediately afterwards 

 it as suddenly sank ten feet and a half below the 

 high-water mark, the effect being most destructive. 

 We shall probably hear more of this wave, as doubt- 

 less it was a branch of it which made its way across 

 the Pacific, and that with such rapidity that on the 

 27th it reached San Francisco harbor, and continued 

 to come in at intervals of twenty minutes, rising to a 

 height of one foot for several days. The great wave 

 generated on May 10, 1877, by the earthquake at 



Iqnique, on the coast of Peru, spread over the Pacifie 

 as far north as the Sandwich Islands, and south to 

 New Zealand and Australia; while that at Arica, on 

 Aug. 13 and 14, 1869, extended right across the Pacific 

 to Yokohama {Nature, vol. i. p. 54). It is misleading 

 to speak of such waves as tidal : they are evidently 

 due to powerful, extensive, and sudden disturbances 

 of the ocean-bed, and are frequently felt in the Pacific 

 when no earthquake has been experienced anywhere,, 

 though doubtless due to commotions somewhere in 

 the depths of ocean. So far, these are all the facts^ 

 that are known in connection with tliis last stupen- 

 dous outburst of volcanic energy. It has altered the 

 entire physical geography of the region, and the con- 

 dition of the ocean-bed. The existing charts of the- 

 strait, with their careful soundings, are useless for 

 purposes of navigation ; and, when quiescence is re- 

 stored, a new series of soundings will be necessary. 

 Doubtless the results of the outbreak will receive- 

 minute attention at the hands of the Dutch govern- 

 ment; and, when all the data are collected, they will 

 form valuable material for the study of the physical 

 geographer. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 

 Humblebees vs. field-mice. 



In Science of Sept. 7 the vice-president of section 

 F (biology), in his address of Aug. 15, referring to- 

 tlie aid given by liumblebees in fertilizing Trifoliuiik 

 pratense, is reported as saying, "Bumblebees pre- 

 fer to raise their colonies in old nests of meadow- 

 mice. I mentioned in my last report, that it had 

 been suggested that we should not keep many cats, 

 nor allow hawks, foxes, or dogs to catch these mice; 

 for tliey make nests which are quite necessary for 

 the bumblebees, which help fertilize our red clover,, 

 and thereby largely increase the yield of seed." 



I would beg leave to differ from the author of the 

 suggestion referred to, on the ground, that, if carried 

 out, the effect produced would be apt to be quite the 

 contrary of that intended. As field-mice prey upon 

 the nests and combs of the humblebees, acting as a. 

 great check to their increase in numbers, the greater 

 the precautions taken to prevent the killing of the 

 mice, the greater would be the tendency towards 

 the extermination of the bumblebee, and therefore- 

 the less would be the yield of seed, resulting from the 

 lack of aid rendered by these insects in fertilizing 

 the red clover. 



In support of my objection, I would refer to Dar- 

 win's Origin of species, sixth edition, third chapter, 

 where, under the head of " Complex relations of all 

 animals and plants to each other in the struggle 

 for existence," he says, " The number of humble- 

 bees in any district depends in a great measure on 

 the number of field-mice, which destroy their combs 

 and nests ; and Col. Newman, who has long attended 

 to the habits of humblebees, believes that ' more 

 than two-thirds of them are thus destroyed all over 

 England.' " E. Nugent. 



PoUsto-wn, Penn., Sept. 15, 1S83. 

 The influence of winds upon tree-gro-wth. 



I observe that in the vicinity of Cambridge and 

 Boston, wherever the common New-England elms- 

 stand in a moderately isolated site, and one exposed 

 to the wind, they lean, in a large majority of cases,, 

 trunk and all, to the south-east. This is true, also. 



