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, and 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 increased 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 cloud 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 a long 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 cool and wet summer just passed in New Zealand was 

 due to that dust- cloud shutting off the sun's heat in a great degree. And I 

 see from the Adelaide report that the mean temperature there during 

 January was over 4 J 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° 



