The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1883-09-08
vESUyIUs, RIVAL.


NEW YORK, Aug. -.
A special cablegram from London gives
The details of the volcanic eruptions in
Java. The first eruptions were on Satur-
day night on the island of Kraokateo. At
noon on Sunday the Maha Meru Mountain
began to belch forth fire and lava, and the
eruption soon spread to the Cunning Teng-
ger, the crater of which is the largest in
the world, being nearly four miles in diam
eter, the Cunning Guntun and other minor
mountains, until by Monday morning near
ly third of the forty-fve craters of Java
were in state of activity.
While these terrible elementary forces
were at work on the land the sea became
alphabetically boisterous. The air was
so surcharged with electricity that at one
time fifteen water-spouts were seen. Hun
dreds of the unfortunate people, unable to
escape from their dwellings before they
were crushed beneath the mass of falling
stones and lava persisted. On the top Of
the Cunning Tengger, a mountain of fame
made a scene of terrific grandeur. Fissure
after assure appeared on the mountains
side, and here and there in the valley a
yawning chesm opened. The tracts of for
ests in the northern portion of Kraokateo
1
trees, some of them centuries old, toppled
over before the advancing sea of fire like
wheat before a gale. AS the eruption in.
creased in violence and frequency the dis
turbance of the waters surrounding the
coast became more and more violent. The
waves rushed with terrific force up the
steep, rocky incline, and meeting the burn
ing lava cooled and fashioned it into the
noct trio chava he
tiers carried away many fisherman's hut.
Along the shore are mostly plains which
the sea overwhelmed, running growing crops
of coffee, rice, sugar, indigo or tobacco, and
it is probable that not single crop will be
saved
Late Sunday afternoon and in the evening
| the volume of the disturbances suddenly,
increased and the island seemed to be about
to be completely buried in O mass of FIRE
and sulphurons ashes. At the same time
the enormous waves began to burst with
greater force upon the shores, coming in
some places far up into the interior Great
chasms opened in the earth and threatened
| to engulf large proportion of the islands
| people and buildings. About midnight the
| most frightful scene Of the whole dist,T-
Dances took place. Suddenly an enormous
luminous cloud, similar to that which was
| seen over the Cunning Guntur, but much
greater in extent, formed over the kanda-
ga range of mountains, which skirt the
| SOuJn coast Oh Jne island. l0lS cloud grad
| ually increased in size until it formed O
| canopy of lurid red and whitish gray over
| a wide extent of territory. During this
| time the eruptions increased, and streams
of lava poured necessarily down the sides
| of the mountain into the valleys, sweep
! ing everything before them. Here and
| there stream of lava would enter an arm
| of the sea or come in contact with the waters
of a river. Then the nearest incan-
| descent lava as it protruded from the great
l et- boil,
heat and rapid vaporization. But the SUI
| perfine consolidation that almost Instantly
ensued would prevent any further contact.
| The assures that opened in this thin crust
as it solidified would emit torrents of vapor
| extending high into the air and making a
tremendous kissing and seething sound,
as if a thousand locomotives were simulta-
neously letting off steam. Here and there
| in the lava streams were innumerable thin,
| plate-like crystals of feldspar, arranged in
| trains, one behind the other, in the direc-
ton of the flow of the current, and field
| sparic spherolites were rapidly formed in
the vitreous matter, resembling those which
| form in the Stag of glass furnace. One OF
| the most singular freaks of the eruption
was the carrying in the midst of molten lava
of bed of solid ice of enormous size, which
had been emitted from one of the craters,
carried along by the current and landed on
the extremity of Point st. Nicholas on the
| northeast corner of the island. This bed of
ice was surrounded by thick envelope of
sand and scoria, which are such non-con-,
| ductors of heat that red-hot stream of
lava running over it will not meltthe snow.l
1t is supposed this ice had formed the crust
of some vast subterranean lake.
About two O'Clock Monday morning the
great cloud suddenly broke into small Sec
tions and quickly vanished. At the same
time the most frightful rumblings were
heard and the columns of fire and smoke
ON the southeast corner of the island ceased
to ascend, while the craters IN the other
parts of Java seemed to open their fiery
threats still wider to let out the greatest
quantity of "ccks, lava, pumice and ashes
yet vomited out.
The kissing of the sea became so loud as
to be almost deafening, and the waves
rushed upon the shores to an unprecedent-
ed height. When daylight came it was
seen that an enormous tract of land had
disappeared, extending from Point Capucin
on the south, to Negery Pafsoerrang on the
north, and west to low point covering an
extent of territory fifty miles square. In
this were situated the villages OF Negery
and Negery Babawang. OF the people in
hahiting these places and the natives scat
tered sparsely through the forests and on
the plains, none escaped a frightful death.
This section of the island was not so dense
ly populated as the other portions, and the
loss of life was comparatively small,
although it must have aggregated fully
1900 souls. The entire Kandang range Of
mountains, extending along the coast in a
semi-circle for about sixty five miles, had
gone out of sight. The waters of Welcome
Bay, the Sunda Straits and Pepper Bay on
the east and of the Indian Ocean on the
south had rushed in and formed a great
sea of turbulent waters. Here and there
the peak of a high crater was exposed for
a moment by the receding of great wave
and occasionally puff of brownish gray
smoke or slight shower of rocks
showed that the volcanoes still con-
4 nksw H.