2 02 The National Geographic Magazine 



distance from Krakatoa being almost 

 3,000 miles. It has been proved by 

 evidence which cannot be doubted that 

 the thunders of the great volcano at- 

 tracted the attention of an intelligent 

 coastguard on Rodriguez, who carefully 

 noted the character of the sounds and 

 the time of their occurrence. He had 

 heard them just four hours after the 

 actual explosion, for this is the time the 

 sound occupied on its journey. 



We shall better realize the extraor- 

 dina^ vehemence of this tremendous 

 noise if we imagine a similar event to 

 take place in localities more known to 

 most of us than are the far Eastern 

 seas. 



If Vesuvius were vigorous enough to 

 emit a roar like Krakatoa, how great 

 would be the consternation of the world ! 

 Such a report might be heard by King 

 Edward, at Windsor, and by the Czar 

 of all the Russias, at Moscow. It w r ould 

 astonish the German Emperor and all 

 his subjects. It would penetrate to the 

 seclusion of the Sultan at Constanti- 

 nople. Nansen would still have been 

 within its reach when he was furthest 

 north, near the Pole. It would have ex- 

 tended to the sources of the Nile, near 

 the Equator. It would have been heard 

 by Mohammedan pilgrims at Mecca. It 

 would have reached the ears of exiles 

 in Siberia. No inhabitant of Persia 

 would have been beyond its range, while 

 passengers on half the liners crossing the 

 Atlantic would also catch the mighty re- 

 verberation. Or, to take another illus- 

 tration, let us suppose that a similar 

 earth-shaking event took place in a 

 central position in the United States. 

 Let us say, for example, that an explo- 

 sion occurred at Pike's Peak as reso- 

 nant as that from Krakatoa. It would 

 certainly startle not a little the inhab- 

 itants of Colorado far and wide. The ears 

 of dwellers in the neighboring states 

 would receive a considerable shock. 

 With lessening intensity the sound would 

 spread much farther around — indeed, 



it might be heard all over the United 

 States. The sonorous waves would roll 

 over to the Atlantic coast ; they would 

 be heard on the shores of the Pacific. 

 Florida would not be too far to the 

 south, nor Alaska too remote to the 

 north. If, indeed, we could believe that 

 the sound would travel as freely over the 

 great continent as it did across the In- 

 dian Ocean, then we may boldly assert 

 that every ear in North America might 

 listen to the thunder from Pike's Peak, 

 if it rivalled Krakatoa. The reverbera- 

 tion might even be audible by skin-clad 

 Eskimos, amid the snows of Greenland, 

 and by naked Indians sweltering on the 

 Orinoco. Can we doubt that Krakatoa 

 made the greatest noise that has ever 

 been recorded ? 



Among the many other incidents con- 

 nected with this explosion, I ma3^ spe- 

 cially mention the wonderful system of 

 divergent ripples that started in our 

 atmosphere from the point at which the: 

 eruption took place. I have called 

 them ripples, from the obvious resem- 

 blance which they bear to the circular 

 expanding ripples produced by rain- 

 drops which fall upon the still surface 

 of water. But it would be more cor- 

 rect to say that these objects were 

 a series of great undulations which 

 started from Krakatoa and spread forth 

 in ever-enlarging circles through our at- 

 mosphere. The initial impetus was so- 

 tremendous that these waves spread for 

 hundreds and thousands of miles. They 

 diverged, in fact, until they put a mighty 

 girdle round the earth, on a great circle 

 of which Krakatoa was the pole. The 

 atmospheric waves, with the whole earth 

 now well in their grasp, advanced into 

 the opposite hemisphere. In their far- 

 ther progress they had necessarily to 

 form gradually contracting circles, until 

 at last they converged to a point in 

 Central America, at the very opposite 

 point of the diameter of our earth, 8,000 

 miles from Krakatoa. Thus the waves- 

 completely embraced the earth. Every- 



