396 Transactions, — Miscellaneous. 
followed each other in rapid succession, and are thought to have been 
caused by the rapid conversion into steam of vast quantities of water that 
found admittance into the bowels of the earth. Later on, the influx of 
water was too much, and the result was that a tremendous power was 
generated, so much so as to cause the north part of the island to be blown 
away, and fall eight miles to the north, forming what is now called Steer's 
Island. This was followed by a still greater eruption, when it is thought 
that the north-east portion was blown clean away, passing over Long 
Island, aud fell at a distance of seven miles, forming what is now known as 
Calmyer's Island. These suppositions are almost proved to be facts, from 
the marine survey of the Straits just concluded, from which it will be seen 
that the bottom surrounding these new islands has not been raised, which 
would most naturally have been the case had they been caused by up- 
heaval; but if anything the bottom shows a slightly inereased depth in 
the direction of the great pit that now occupies the position that the peak 
of Krakatoa did the day before. These incidents are cited to show you 
the awful nature and magnitude of the forces brought into play, so you can 
the more readily satisfy your minds as to the great height the dust and ash 
were thrown to. 
. As I said before, this dust-cloud may probably be denser in some parts 
than others, owing that fact to the relative period of time elapsed between 
each eruption ; where it is dense we may assume that they followed each 
other rapidly, and where it is less dense the interval of time was greater. 
For you must remember that it was shown to you that the eloud apparently 
moves to the westward, or that the earth moves from beneath the cloud at 
the rate of 87 miles per hour, so that during each hour of the eruption there 
was along streak of smoke and dust being formed. These densest parts 
were no doubt the cause of the coloured suns, and, as some observers state, 
“the sun appeared to shine with lessened strength," others, **that it was 
rayless and giving no heat;" so we may look upon that dust-cloud as 
playing the part of a great screen, shutting off some of the heat of the sun 
from us. ; 
In these southern latitudes we have experienced those brilliant sunsets 
for over seven months, and I have no hesitation in expressing my opinion 
that the remarkably eool and wet summer just passed in New Zealand was 
due to that dust-cloud shutting off the sun's heat in a great degree. AndI 
see from the Adelaide report that the mean temperature there during 
January was over 44 degrees cooler than the average of the previous twenty- 
five years, and on only one occasion during that period was it so low, viz., 
in 1869. At Melbourne also the weather was more like winter than summer. 
Whereas in North and Central Australia, or I may say down to latitude 30? 
