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THE MIDLAND NATURALIST. 
“Come forth into the light of things, 
Let Nature be your teacher.” 
Wordsworth. 
THE RECENT SUNSETS- AND SUNRISES.* 
By W. P. Marshall, M.I.C.E. 
The very remarkable sunsets and sunrises seen in this 
country in the latter part of November last were exceptional 
phenomena, not only from their magnificent display of colour 
and the great range of the Earth over which they extended, 
but also from the unusually long period after sunset and 
before sunrise for which they were seen as compared with the 
ordinary sunset and sunrise effects, showing that the cause 
producing the phenomena was situated at a higher level in 
the atmosphere than the layers of aqueous vapour that 
produce the ordinary effects. This exceptional occurrence 
must consequently have had some exceptional cause, and that 
cause has now been suggested to be the great eruption of a 
volcano in Java, that occurred at the end of August last, three 
months previously. This suggestion, although at first appear¬ 
ing a very wild one, has now received so much support from 
various evidence that it is looked upon by many as the true 
solution of the difficulty. 
This eruption, which occurred in the small island of 
Krakatoa, between Java and Sumatra, was of exceptionally 
enormous violence and extent, and is spoken of as the most 
tremendous volcanic eruption which perhaps has ever occurred 
in historic times. An island of 3000 feet height disappeared 
in the eruption, forming a wave of 100 feet height in the sea, 
which caused great destruction; ashes were discharged to a 
distance of 250 miles from the volcano, and complete darkness 
was caused for two days to a distance of more than 30 miles, 
by a dense continuous downfall of mud and volcanic dust. It 
is now suggested that in this eruption lava was projected to an 
extreme height in the atmosphere in the form of minute 
* Transactions of the Birmingham Natural History and Micro¬ 
scopical Society. Bead at a Meeting of the Society, Dec. 11, 1883. 
