The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1883-09-05
Earthquakes in Java.

Before the wall which went up from DEATH
smitten Ischia has died away there comes from
the Indian seas reports of destruction that rival
in their awful magnitude the greatest OF mod
ern disasters Turning to the map Of the
Indian archipelago and following down the
lean finger of the Malay peninsula to Spga-
pore, thence continuing southeastly along the
island of Sumatra and across the straits OF
Sunda, the eye rests on the slender island of
Java. 1t is six hundred and sxty-six miles
long, and varies in width from fifty to one hun
dred and thirty-fve miles Dotted along its
interior is continuation of the Samaritan
chain of mountains, which extend beyond Java
through the smaller islands of the archipelago
into New Guinea, two thousand miles away.
This vast up-foldiDg Of the ear.h's crus. is one
OF the mighty volcanic systems of our globe.
In Java alone thirty-eight volcanoes divide the
island between them, and from their craters in
past and present ages have been hurled the
materials which form the richly-watered valleys
and forest-grown plains of the most productive
and fertile of the islands Of the Indian archi-
pelago. These peaks range from 600 to
1900 feet in height, and the Gumong Tepger,
whose crater four miles in diameter, is only
second in extent to that of Kilauea in the Sand
witch islands, is about 5000 feet high. Here
nearly eighteen million people find home.
AS nearly as can be judged from the accounts
of the disaster thus far received, the volcano
on the island of Krakatoa, which intervenes
between Java and Sumatra in the straits of
Supda, began serious eruption the first OF
last week, and on Tuesday, the 9th, was aided
in its terrible demonstrations by a subsistence
of a portion of the coast of lava adjoining the
straits OF Sunda, and by a tidal wave of i'm
mense size and force which swept with resist
less power along the whole northwestern coast
OF Java. The eruptions filled the air with ashes
and hot stones, and the scenes which trans
pired in Batavia, the chief port of Java, and
the other places within reach of the tidal wave
must have been horrible beyond description.
Batavia had population OF nearly hundred
thousand, and If the entire low quarters of the
city were swept by the wave, without giving
the inhabitants an opportunity to escape to
higher land, the loss of life has been enormous.
Fifteen or twenty of the volcanoes of the island
were speedily in state OF eruption, hurting
high in air tremendous volumes of cinders and
ashes. with enormous fragments of stone and
showers OF sulphurous white mud. The sea
was all the time in fierce turmoil Water
spouts abounded, there was sometimes seen
fifteen or twenty at time. The mountains
cracked and smoked, and the villages were
coven open, showers of stones mud and lava
DESTROYED the plateaus; the forests on the
northern hills were set afire, and immense
tidal waves rushed up the shore. meeting the
lava flow and checking it on the mountain sides
and on the sheltered hooks, obliteratiDg fishing
hamlets and rich plantations. The island OF
Serang was utterly destroyed-sunken beneath
the sea, and not soul escaped to tell its story.
At Anger the European and American quarter
was buried beneath rocks, mud and lava from
quilted the ruins. There were more than 1000
lives lost there and at Bantam some l, 500 more.
Batavia was covered with a layer of thin white
ashes, which in its descent killed birds by its
heat. An extensive low-lying quarter of the
city, settled by the Chinese was completely
swept away by the sea, and 1t is believed that
not more than one fifth the 25,000 Chinese had
escaped. The island from end to end was
shaken and showered and inundated, so that II
Is thought that not one crop will be rescued,
nd ar oil tho line has hpan CHANGED
that nothing can be recognized. A great noun
tain, that of kromataD, has been swallowed
beneath the sea, and every lighthouse on the
Sunda strait has disappt Jared. For the entire
length of the island this fearful force was felt,
and although the strongest effects occurred at
the western end, where the Dutch capital
Batavia is situated, and the happy isle OF
Serang has disappeared forever with all its
people, yet at the extreme eastern points,
Madura and Serrabaya, and other places OF
consequence have suffered immense damage
and loss of life. The Thousand temples" of
Brambanan were some of them destroyed and
Others injured; and many of the domes OF the
terraced temple of Borobodo were crushed by
falling rocks. The island of Java is not the
largest of the Indian archipelago, but it is the
most important and prosperous; and although
1t has numerous times been visited by volcanic
devastation in which sometimes as many as
20 600 lives have been lost, 1t has probably
never suffered as in the dread destruction and
mortality of this latest eruption. Many towns
have been entirely obliterated, mountains
swallowed up and numerous islands ingulfed
by great tidal waves from the sea. IL Is esti-
mated that 100 600 persons have persisted. The
Batavian earthquake wave will stand in history
among the greatest of modern disasters. The
Naples shock of 1456 destroyed only 10000
lives, Lisbon lost but 10000 in 1881; Naples
10000 in 1926, and Lisbon $4,000 in 1893. The
great Sicilian earthquake OF 1913 killed lOO,OUO,
Yeddo lost 100000 in 1908, and Pekin 100000
in 1871. What may be the connecting causes
between the Italian earthquakes, or volcanic
disturbances and those of the Indian islands,
no one can say, but 1t would be bold asser-
tween them