The Eruption of Krakatoa 



201 



sides of the volcano, guided by the 

 sounds which were issuing from its 

 summit. There they beheld a vast col- 

 umn of steam pouring forth with terrific 

 noise from a profound opening about 

 thirty yards in width. 



As the summer of this dread year ad- 

 vanced, the vigor of Krakatoa steadily 

 increased. The noises became more and 

 more vehement. These were presently 

 audible on shores ten miles distant, and 

 then twenty miles distant, and still 

 those noises waxed louder and louder, 

 until the great thunders of the volcano, 

 now so rapidly developing, astonished 

 the inhabitants that dwelt over an area 

 at least as large as Great Britain, and 

 there were other symptoms of the ap- 

 proaching catastrophe. With each suc- 

 cessive convulsion a quantity of fine dust 

 was projected aloft into the clouds. 

 The wind could not carry this dust 

 away as rapidly as it was hurled up- 

 ward by Krakatoa, and accordingly 

 the atmosphere became heavily charged 

 with suspended particles. A pall of 

 darkness thus hung over the adjoining 

 seas and islands. Such was the thick- 

 ness and the density of these atmos- 

 pheric volumes of Krakatoa dust that 

 for a hundred miles around the dark- 

 ness of midnight prevailed at midday. 

 Then the awful tragedy of Krakatoa 

 took place. Many thousands of the 

 unfortunate inhabitants of the adjacent 

 shores of Sumatra and Java were des- 

 tined never to behold the sun again. 

 The>- were presently swept away to de- 

 struction in an invasion of the shore by 

 the tremendous waves with which the 

 seas surrounding Krakatoa were agi- 

 tated. 



Gradually the development of the 

 volcanic energy proceeded, and gradu- 

 ally the terror of the inhabitants of the 

 surrounding coasts rose to a climax. 

 July had ended before the manifesta- 

 tions of Krakatoa had attained their 

 full violence. As the days of August 

 passed by, the spasms of Krakatoa 



waxed more and more vehement. By 

 the middle of that month the panic was 

 widespread, for the supreme catastrophe 

 was at hand. 



On the night of Sunday, August 26, 

 1883, the blackness of the dust clouds, 

 now much thicker than ever in the Straits 

 of Sunda and adjacent parts of Sumatra 

 and Java, was only occasionally illu- 

 mined by lurid flashes from the volcano. 

 The Krakatoan thunders were on the 

 point of attaining their complete devel- 

 opment. At the town of Batavia, a hun- 

 dred, miles distant, there was no quiet 

 that night. The houses trembled with 

 the subterranean violence, and the win- 

 dows rattled as if heavy artillery were 

 being discharged in the streets, and still 

 these efforts seemed to be only rehears- 

 ing for the supreme display. By ten 

 o'clock on the morning of Monday, Au- 

 gust 27, 1883, the rehearsals were over 

 and the performance began. An over- 

 ture, consisting of two or three intro- 

 ductory explosions, was succeeded by a 

 frightful convulsion which tore away a 

 large part of the island of Krakatoa and 

 scattered it to the winds of heaven. In 

 that final effort all records of previous 

 explosions on this earth were completely 

 broken. 



This supreme effort it was which pro- 

 duced the mightiest noise that, so far as 

 we can ascertain, has ever been heard 

 on this globe. It must have been in- 

 deed a loud noise which could travel 

 from Krakatoa to Batavia and preserve 

 its vehemence over so great a distance ; 

 but we should form a very inadequate 

 conception of the energy of the eruption 

 of Krakatoa if we thought that its 

 sounds were heard by those merely a 

 hundred miles off. This would be little 

 indeed compared with what is recorded, 

 on testimony which it is impossible to 

 doubt. 



Westward from Krakatoa stretches 

 the wide expanse of the Indian Ocean. 

 On the opposite side from the Straits of 

 Sunda lies the Island of Rodriguez, the 



