The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1883-09-05
CRATERs IN FULL BLAST.
Thousands of People Swallowed Up
The Work of the Volcanic Erup-
tions on the Island of Java Com
pleted by the Furious Waves-Full
Details of the Great Disaster.

ulCdtcu. 1uc uietuI DduCtS DcSdIl on
the Island of Krakatoa, in the Strait
of Sunda, about Is miles off the
coast of Java. The deep rumbIings
were distinctly audible at Surakerta
and Batavia, about 45 and % miles
off respectively. Little alarm was
felt at first, but within few hours
showers of stones began to fall at
Jokjokerta, Surabaya and Serang.
All through the night showers of red
hot rocks and ashes fell, making
complete darkness in all these towns.
In Batavia there was an occasional
fall, and it was difficult to keep the
street lights burning in the Euro
pean quarter. By the next morning
all communication with Anjier was
cut of, all the bridges having been
destroyed by the descending rocks
and ashes and road rendered impas-
sable.
THE CRATERs OF JAVA IN FULL BLAST.
The first eruptions were ON Satur-
day night. On Sunday morning the
disturbances had extended between
the waters of the strait, and they
were soon boiling and kissing vio-
lently, while great waves dashed up
on the Javanese shores and the
temperature of the sea went up near
ly twenty degrees. Even as far
away from the original point Of dis
turbance as Madura the furious
waves were lashed into mountains
of foam as they came rolling in. The
threatening rumblings gradually be-
came more and more distinct, and
by noon the Maha Meru, the largest
of the volcanoes of Java, was belch-
ing forth flames at very alarming
rate. This eruption soon spread to
the Cunning Tengger, the crater of
which is the largest in the world,
being nearly four miles in diameter /;
the Cunning Gunter many other min
or mountains, until more than third
of the forty-fve craters of Jaya were
either in active eruption or seriously
threatening it. Just before dusk a
great luminous cloud formed over
the Cunning Gunter and the crater
of that volcano began to vomit up
enormous streams of white, acid
sulphurous mud, besides smaller
quantities of lava. There were rap
idly successive explosions, followed
by tremendous showers of cinders
and enormous fragments, which
were hurled high into the air and
scattered in all directions, to fall,
after the force was spent, upon the
valleys below, carrying death and
destruction. With these terrible
eruptions came sympathetic demon
strations from the sea. The over
hanging clouds were so surcharged
with electricity that at one time over
fifteen huge waterspouts were seen.
These have continued at somewhat
long intervals ever since.
BURIED IN THE RUINS.
Men. women and children rushed
in terror from their tottering dwell
ing places, filling the air with their
shrieks of horror. Hundreds were
unable to get out before the houses
fell, and were buried beneath the
great masses of rocks and mud which
were piled up where a few hours be-
fore all was peace. happiness and
fancied security. The Cunning
Tengger has not had an eruption be-
fore since the year 1900, when an
extent of land seventeen miles long
and seven broad was completely
covered with the white sulphurous
mud so peculiar to Interruptions of
Java. The peak of a Cunning Teng-
ger is 5000 feet high and the monu-
ment of flames on top of this made
a scene of very impressive grandure.
Every moment huge boulder, at
red or white heat, would be hurled
from Tengger's crater with terrific
force, and, after going hundreds Of
feet into the air, would fall back
with a whirr, perhaps crashing
through the thatched roof of some
Chinese fsherman's hut or crush be-
tween its huge mass the form OF
some native peasant. Fissure after
fissure appeared in the side of the
mountains and there in the valleys
there came a great, yawning chasm.
On the elevated plains of Kedirl
and Bandong the showers of stones,
mud and lava were not SO frequent
as in the lower portions of the island,
but were still quite destructive.
IN BLAZE OF FLAME.
Much of the northern portion of
the island, which was covered with
tracts of forests, was soon in one great
blaze offiame. The red-hot vomitings
from the craters had set the trees on
fire, and as the giants of the woods
fell one after another, like so many
sheaves of wheat before gale, the
scene was one of awful grandure.
As the eruptions increased in fire.
quency and violence the disturbance
of the waters surrounding the barren
i. coast became more and more violent.
Here the waves rushing in terrific
force up the steep, rocky incline,
breaking upon the overhanging crags
, and receding rapidly, leaving a lava
. flow cooled just at the moment when
it was about to fall over a precipice
and there remaining, quickly har-
dened by contact with the waters
and forming distinct strata of black
lava, ,and bright rec, purple and brown
all thrown about in the most eccentric
masses, while huge peaks of basalt
rose at frequent intervals. There the
waves came whelming over a marshy
plain along the shore, suddenly en-
; gulfing hamlet of fishermen's rude
houses and, turning suddenly back,
swept away almost every vestige OF
what had moment before been a
scene af busting activity, where
family after family had been rush.
ing around in the vain endeavor
to save their effects and get away
with their lives from the awful
: combination OF elements threatening
them. What few hours before
were fertile valleys, covered with