Connecticut western news., 1883-09-19
THE ISLAND OF JAVA.
A HOME FOR VOLCANOES.
Over Thirty Volcanoes On an Island 63O
 Miles Long and 30 Miles Wide.

Over Thirty Volcanoes On an Island 63O Miles Long and 30 Miles Wide.
 The southernmost portion of Asia runs out from Siam into a peninsula called Malacca. To the southeast lie the isl ands which together form that division of Oceanica known as Malaysia. Those nearest to the island of Malacca are called the Sunda Islands, and together contain between eighty and ninety vol canoes. The principal islands of the Sunda group are Borneo, Sumatra, and Java. Borneo is the largest island on the globe except Australia. It is more than three times as large as Great Brit ain, but so much of it is low marshy ground, liable to inundation, and the in- terior is so covered with dense jungle, that it has not invited settlers to any large extent, and the population is not more than about two millions, and most ly half civilized people. Sumatra lies l nearest to Malacca and the strait which runs between them (Straits of Malacca) connects the Indian Ocean and the China Sea. It is 520 miles long, and from 25 miles Opposite Naning) to 200 miles broad. Sumatra, is about ,OO0 miles ill length, running east and west, and its greatest breadth is 24O miles. It has several volcanoes, which rise from 2, ,OOO to Il ,O0O feet above the level of the sea. But the great volcanic island of the Ma l laysian group lies almost due east of Suma- tra, and is just now an object of great interest all over the world-the island of Java.
 There are about fifty volcanoes on this island, which is 63O miles long by 35 to 120 miles broad. Earthquake shocks are frequent, and volcanic eruptions have from time to time spread death and disaster around. In 1922 all eruption of Mount Galung- -gung destroyed IA vil- lages and 1000 people. In 1S43 Mount Guntur threw out sand and ashes day and night, covering plantations and viii lages, and causing an awful destruction of human life. In 1867 earthquake shocks rocked and rent the island, and in the town of Jokjokarba alone thou sands of lives were lost In 1878 and ill l 1879 there were destructive earthquakes. All the legends of the natives are of ter. rible disasters occasioned by eruptions of some of the volcanoes. On the east ern end of the island, toward the shores of the Strait of Bali, there is an extinct volcano, the crater of which forms valley half mile round. It is called the Vale of Poison. Birds flying over 1t drop dead, and nothing can pass through it and live The natives felieYe. it to be the abode of evil spirits. It is 8 vent for deadly gases generated by the great fires which shoulder and burn be- heath the surface all over the island. Not very pleasant place of abode, one would say, this island of Java.
 And it contains 8 larger population than all the other islands of the Malay sian group put together. The great island of Borneo contains only little more than two millions of people, and has no-volcanoes. Sumatra is much larger than Java, and has only two vol canoes, and not more than five millions of inhabitants. Java, third in size of the Malaysian group, is six hundred and twenty-two miles long, one hundred and twenty-one miles broad, and in 1871 contained over nineteen millions of peo- pie. Of these Is, ,S24, ,574 were Malays, 200, ,363 Chinese, 9,61O Arabs and others and 29, ,998 Europeans. It is the point from which the Dutch govern ment rules
 all its Eastern dependencies, and it Is governed by Regent who resides at the capital, Batavia, town of importance on the northwestern shore of the island.
 Divided into twenty-four Residencies,
 with a Governor and inferior officers ad-
 the island of Madura, the island of Java
 is the most valuable of all the Dutch
 dependencies in the East, and in the
 production of sugar, coffee, rice, tea,
 and bamboo, the manufacture of paper
 and various kinds of carved woodwork,
 in fishing and the shipping trade, the
 immense population find employment. The last and most fearful eruption
 which has wrought such destruction,
 occurred OF the extreme western end oi
 the island, where the Strait of Sunda ; rolls sixty miles in width between Java
 and Sumatra. The location of the vol
 canoes which have worked such awful havoc is the province of Bantam, whicE , is away up in the west corner. The southern portion of the coast, whicl borders the strait, is high and rocky
 ascending through the forests of the in terior toward the loftiest snmmits wher,
 the fires of the great volcanoes Papanda yang and Gunung Karang burn continu
 ally. Toward the north there are wid'
 plains terminating ill extensive marshe
 which are washed by the waters of tn, 3 strait. On these plains were many vii l lages, and here was the city of Bantam Y, formerly the capital of the province
 populous and thriving, but some year f. ago deserted for the safer and healthie , location of Serang, where large trade 7 carried on.
 It is the low land of the province c t Bantam which has been covered man 3 feet deep by the ashes from the volca l noes, and it was along its coast tha f rivers of boiling lava flowed into tn 8 strait. In the widest part it is only 9 = miles across the strait, and it is onl 8 about 60 miles between the two islands :, The depth of water was nowhere greate @ than 40 fnthOmS and the small island