ERUPTION OF THE KLUTI. 
75 
eruption were evident in all directions. Mr. La Rona told 
me that there must have been upwards of half a mile of drift 
timber collected against the bridge, which forcing its way 
through, destroyed the greater part of the structure, the 
massive brick portion having been pushed bodily out of its 
position. They told me that the water of the river at Kediri, 
although some thirty miles distant from the volcano, was so 
hot on the night of the eruption that the hand placed in it 
couid scarcely be kept there a moment. An immense mass 
of boiling mud and water was carried down, intermixed with 
thousands of dead and dying fish, parboiled bodies of tigers, 
banting, deer, monkeys and wild pigs, the torrent of boiling 
water having flowed over some eight miles of jungle before 
it arrived at the tributary stream and thence into the Kediri 
river. Several villages were destroyed^ but happily few 
lives, as the villagers had warning, and had taken llight at 
the first rumblings of the mountain. By all accounts the 
eruptioii must have been a most awful sight, the loud con- 
cussions and reports were like a tremendous cannonade 
with intervals of small arms firing, like a naval engagement, 
so much so that in many places the natives had the idea that 
the English had arrived and were taking the island. The 
sound appeared to travel only in one direction, along the line 
of mountains to the west ; at Soerabaja to the east, the first 
intimation of anything going on was the mass of mud, 
carcases of dead animals and drift timber brought down by 
the river — not a sound had been heard. 
At Kediri I called on the Regent, who has a very nice 
house ; he is reported to be a dashing fellow, and will sit up 
and drink and play at cards with you as long as you like. He 
holds the rank of captain in one of the Dutch regiments, and 
