Bingwood. — On Red Sunsets. 395 



Some people — and very rightly too — express wonder and unbelief at the 

 possibility of dust being capable of being shot up to such a height as that 

 ascribed to it, as to cause the red sunsets, but here I have quoted the fact 

 of such as seen by a man of known repute ; the dust and ash were shot up 

 to that great height ; and not only that, but as the dust cloud came between 

 Mr. Whymper and the sun, he saw the phenomenon of the coloured sun. 

 The same may be seen during any very heavy dust storm anywhere, when 

 the cloud is between the observer and the sun. 



In this description, given by Whymper, we have a good illustration of 

 the tremendous force Nature usesin these convulsions, — a force that could 

 throw the finest dust to a height of 20,000 feet is almost inconceivable to the 

 human mind, — and in that phenomenon we have, I may say, only an every 

 day occurrence when compared with that giant eruption of Krakatoa. Let 

 us draw a comparison : At the destruction of Pompeii, situated at the foot 

 of Vesuvius, where the city was enveloped with darkness from the density of 

 the dust and ash cloud that shrouded it, and that ultimately buried it ; — but 

 now contemplate the tremendous power that ejected from a mountain a 

 sufficiency of dust and ash to envelope a city in total darkness for 36 hours, 

 eighty miles distant. On that diagram I have sketched an imaginary 

 picture of the eruption, and eighty miles distant is represented by a little 

 over If inch, where you see the letter B., showing to your mind the relative 

 distance of Batavia from Krakatoa. You can form in your imagination 

 some idea of the great height the dust cloud ascended : to my mind twice 

 forty would not be too great. Then again we have the ship " Charles Bal," 

 which, when 30 miles distant, was enveloped at noon-day in pitch darkness 

 through the mud-fall. . 



Furthermore, as Lockyer says, the sound, the least part of the affair, 

 was heard over an area of 4,000 miles in diameter, viz., in Ceylon to the 

 north-west, at Saigon to the north, and throughout North Australia to the 

 south-east. In the last quarter, the reports were at 15 minutes' intervals, 

 and sounded like ship guns, but as the hearers were from 150 to 200 miles 

 from the coast, such cause could not be assigned. All that can be said is, 

 that it is beyond the human mind to conceive of such gigantic forces, and 

 therefore absurd to throw doubt on the result ; by which I mean, that if 

 the laws of refraction show that the substance, whatever it may be that 

 causes the red glow, is at an altitude of 40 or 60 miles, it is ridiculous to 

 doubt that result, when one cannot conceive the magnitude of the power 

 that operated. 



It was not only one eruption that took place, but several during the 

 26th, the following night, and up to 11-15 a.m. of the 27th, about which 

 time the grand finale is supposed to have taken place. These eruptions 



