Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-11-26
THE KRAKAroA ERUPTION.

SINGAPORE, September 4th.-The details
of the Krakatoa eruption of last Sunday
week read like page from the earthquake
of Lisbon, or yet the blscker horror which
Lord Lytton's genius cast around the fall
of Pompeii. Even in this grim region,
whose very soil seems forever quaking with
the struggles of the unquenchable fires be-
low, so widespread and overwhelming a
ruin has had no parallel since the Island of
Sumbawa exploded like powder mine in
1915, shaking land and sea for hundreds of
miles around, and hurting forth ashes and
lava enough to "cover two feet deep the
whole surface of Germany" On the night
of Sunday, the 26th of August last, various
sea Captains far away from land paused in
their measured pacing of the deck to listen
in wonder to tine sound of heavy cannon.
ade las they thought) coming from the di.
rection of the Sunda Strait, at the western
extremity of Java. During the same night
several residents in Singapore were sur
pr;sed by the appearance of floating black
dust, pungent, sitting and so fine that even
a mosquito net was not proof against it.
In Java itself the tokens of evil were even
more awfully manifest. The sun rose in
vain for Batavia on the morning after that
fatal Sabbath. A thick black cloud-a
cloud of darkness which might be felt"-
encompassed the affrightened city. In that
tainted air the Pickering lamp euivered
and died, The few men who returned to
grope their way about the darkened town
fell fainting in its streets. Houses and
shops were shut and barred, and the iuhab-
itants sat trembling within, thinking that
the last day was at hand.
But the real nature of the calamity soon
became terribly clear. The volcanic sys.
TEN of the Malay Archipelago may be best
compared to an electric cable traversing the
whole length of Sumatra and Java, contin-
ued to the eastward through the smaller
islands of Lombock and Sumbawa to Floris
and Timor, and thence making a sudden
bend northward to Amboyna and the Mol.
uccas. One of tie most important links
in this great explosive chain is the volcanic
islet of Krakatoa, in the strait dividing
Java from Sumatra, which was quickly dis
covered to be in state of furious erup-
ton. And now tidings of disaster began
to come thick and fast from every side.
Miles of fourishing plantations had been
blasted by the burning ashes, and the labors
of years were destroyed in one night. The
sea, shaken to its lowest depths, rose and
fell like fountain jet, finging boats and
even large chips far up on the shore.
Neither chart nor compass could save the
bewildered seamen, who, voyaging over
perfectly familiar waters, found sea in the
place of land and land in the place of sea.
In Batavia itself the streets were heaped
with volcanic ashes and lava dust, while
succession of mountain waves, bursting
upon the shore, rendered any approach
from that side impossible.
But worse was still to come. The fatal
mountain stood right in the center of a
group of native towns and villages lying
along either side of the strait, and upon
these fell the utmost fury of the destruc.
ton. One great wave sutficed to lay in
ruins the Javanese village of Tjeringin.
The district inspector of telegraphs, while
engaged in repairing the broken wires be.
tween Serang and AMER, few miles fur.
Their up the Javanese coast, suddenly de-
serted far out to seward piled-up wall of
water standing up like high column"
and coming in upon the shore with incon-
ceivable swiftness. When it subsidized An
jer was gone. Even worse did it fare with
Teluk Betong, a large Malay town on the
Samaritan side of the channel. One line in
a telegram formed its dismal epitaph
"Teluk Betong has disappeared with l0,-
900 inhabitants.
The Miltonic battle ended as suddenly as
it began, but its grim work had been thor
oughly done. All the light-hous had dis
appeared from the Sunda Strait. Three
populous towns were gone as if they had
never been. Upward of 80, 600 human be-
ings lay buried under the falling ashes or
in the depths of the devouring sea. The
dust and volcanic cinders descended thickly
all over Western Java as far as Cheribon.
The flashes of the successive fire-spouts
through the gloom were distinctly seen
many leagues away, and, according to the
concurrent testimony of several trust
worthy witnesses, some of the explosions
were plainly heard at distance of 430
miles. The whole conformation of the
Sdnda Strait has been altered in one night,
and bold indeed will be he who shall dare
to pass through it for many day to come.
Compared with the havoc of that fatal
Sunday all the destruction wrought by the
overthrow of Pompei and Herculaneum
is nothing. But with the destroyed has
persisted the destroyer. One sentence of
recent bulletin rounds off with tragic fit
ness this battle of the giants The sea
now plays where Mount Krakatoa once
stood. "-[D X, in New York Times.