1834.] On the Volcanic Eruption in Sunda Strait. 205 



but to have swept past St. Nicholas Point eastwards, with a slight 

 direction south, and to have struck Tanara, a town near the coast on 

 the river which separates the provinces of Serang and Batavia. In 

 the Tanara district 704 corpses have already been found. The wave 

 did immense damage at Kramat, a coast village about 2 miles east- 

 ward of Tanara, and killed many people there. It struck the land on 

 the east side of the bay in which Batavia lays with a column of water, 

 which was still 6 feet high; and somewhere about this district the 

 force of the flood seems, as far as is at present known, to have 

 expended itself. 



The first eruption on Krakatau Island took place about the 23rd of 

 last May, and continued at intervals for a day or two. It is not 

 without interest to note that Captain Gibson, commanding the steam - 

 dredger " Crocodile," on its way to Australia, was, on August 21st, 

 in latitude 7° 30' S. and longitude 90° 30' E. There he found his 

 vessel amid great quantities of floating pumice-stone, some of which he 

 brought on board and has preserved. He attributed the presence of 

 this pumice-stone to some volcanic eruption, which he supposed had 

 taken place among the Eastern islands. 



The current at that time was setting westward, at the rate of about 

 a knot and a half per hour. There were barnacles and shells on some 

 of the pumice-stone, showing that it must have been for some time in 

 the water. Most probably this was the debris from the May eruptions 

 on Krakatau. 



" There may possibly be questions connected with the migration of 

 animal or vegetable life, or with the duration and drift of oceanic 

 currents on which the above incident may have an important bearing, 

 or perhaps would have if it were possible to trace what ultimately 

 became of the pumice-stone which was met with by the " Crocodile " 

 travelling steadily westward, and which had already travelled so far. 



In the neighbourhood of Anjer coral rocks more than six tons in 

 weight were rolled by the sea far inland. 



The corpses are so battered that it is often impossible to recognise 

 whether the man was a Chinese or a Malay. 



On the southern coasts of Java the flood waves rolled ashore, and 

 did damage as far to the eastward as the province of Banjoemas. 



In some places where the ash rain has choked the wells there is a 

 scarcity of water. 



(Signed) H. G. Kennedy, 



Her Majesty's Consul. 



September 13, 1883. 



