Arizona weekly citizen., 1883-09-08
THE JAVA HORROR.
Graphic Descriptions or the Event that will OutliVe Herculaneum and
 PomDeff

! Event will OutliVe Herculaneum and
 ! Pompeii.
 ! NEW YORK, Sept j.-The Suns special | cable more than cOrrOborates the terrible | story of loss and destruction of life and | property m Batavia. Of whole districts | It IS sad that nothing was left, not even | the land When the original Outburst | m Bantam subsided a temporary relic. | was felt, but at ten o'clock on Monday night there was a new and more disa,- ! trous outburst. By II o'clock the Pap
 amdaying volcano, which k 7,034 feet | nigh, was in very active state of par ! oxysmal eruption. It was accompanied | by detOnatiOns said to have been heard
 many miles away. In Sumatra three ! distinct columns of flame were seen to rise from the mountain to @ vast height, l and its whole surface soon appeared a-
 If covered with fiery lava stream which
 spread to great distances on all sides.
 Stone fell for miles around, and the
 black fragmentary matter carried into
 the ar caused total darkness. \ whirI
 wind accompanied this eruption, by
 which house roofs, trees and men and
 horses were carried into the air. The
 quantity of ashes elected was such as to
 
 DenamO to the depth of severn
 inches oH Point Caay. The floating
 pumIce m the sea formed layer
 two feet thick through which vessels
 forced their way with great difficulty
 The rise Of vapOr produced the appear
 ance of a column several thousand feet
 high, based on the edge of the crater.
 It appeared from distance to consist
 of mass Of innumerable globular
 clouds of extreme whiteness, resembling
 vast balls of cotton rolling one after the
 other as they ascended, impelled by the pressure of fresh supplies necessarily
 urged upward by the continued explo- | slOns. At a great height the column dllated horizontally and spread into a ] dark and turbld circular cloud shaped like an immense umbrella. FOrked 1 lightning of great vIvldness and beauty | continually darted from different parts | of the clouds. Suddenly the scene was changed, the mountain was split into l seven parts without a moments warn | ing and where Pgpandaying had stood | alone there was now seven distinct peaks looming up to a great height.
 In the seams opened could be seen | great balls of molten matter. from the Llsl n black elected lapiilO flowed m steady | streams and ran slowly down the noun tain sides, forming beds 2O0 to 300 feet in extent. Exhibitions of carbonic acid gas were SO strong that birds and ani- nlals m large numbsrs were killed by it, and few human beings lost their lives in the same way. This proved to te the turning point in the eruption. eHaar s I act as safety valves through which tbe streams of lava gently flowed down into the valleys. The volcanic fires though ! stlH burning at last advices, had lost most of their ferceness, and the steam generated found vent without being forced through the comparatively uar- TOW mouth of the old craters. One of the queer incidents was the sudden ris- ing during Tuesday forenoon of four teen new volcanic mountains in the straits of Sunda, forming a complete chain in almost n straight line. between Point St. Nicholas ou the Javansse. and Hoga Point on the coast of Sumatra. almost on the top of which had been the Merak and Middle Island which sani. into the sea on Monday. In the city Of Bantam, where lJ,OOO persons were a. irst supposed tO have perished, the bod les Of 2,sCO have already been recovered. Some SD inhabitants Of the interior town of WarOnce are now known Co have been killed, and at Talatra, 3GI 15dies have been found From all over -he island come reports Of loss Of life and property, and 1t is thought at Ba- 'avla that the estimate of 5000 killed Tlll not prove excessive. On the low lands Of Batavia, where the waters have -eceeded and quietei down, hundreds of bruised and mangled bodies are lying a sanitary corps has been form ,d and the cOrpses are being removed md buried as fast as possible m order [ o prevent the breaking out of contq- non. While there is some cause for Inxiety on thIs score, 1t IS thought the yreater number Of bodies ID the interior were so dried and scOrched by the hot 8 ava and stones that they will not putri- y, and the bodies of those drowned by a he tidal waves can be taken care Of with easOnsbls dispatch by the coast sani- ary corps now getting rapidly to work 1