Milford chronicle., 1883-09-07

The latest advices from Batavia, the
capital of Java, show that the volcanic
eruptions in that island are much more
serious than at first indicated. The dis
turbances began on the Island of Kra-
katoa, i'll the Strait of Sunda, about fif-
teen miles off the coast of Java. The deep
rumblings were distinctly audible at Sura-
kerta and Batavia, about forty-fve and
twenty-five miles off respectively. Little
alarm was felt at first, but within IL
few hours showers of stones began to
fall at Jogjakerta, Sourabaya, and Sam
arang, 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 European quarter.
By the next morning all communication
| with Anjer was cut off, all the bridges
having been destroyed by the descend
ing rock and ashes and the road rendered
impossible.
The first eruptions were on Saturday
night. On Sunday morning the distur-
bance had extended beneath the waters
of the strait, and they were soon boiling
and kissing violently, while great waves
dashed upon the Javanese shores, and |
the temperature of the sea went ur
nearly twenty degrees. Even as far |
away from the original point of distur- |
bance as Madura, more than 800 miles. |
the furious waves were lashed into
mountains of foam as they came rolling
in.
The Cunning Tengger has not had an
er IptlOn before since the year 1880,
wnen an extent of land seventeen miles
long and seven broad was completely
covered with the white sulphurous mud
so peculiar to the eruptiOns of Java.
The peak of Cunning Tengger is 5000
feet above the sea, andthe monumental ,
flame on top of this made a scene of ,
wonderful grandeur. Every moment a
huge boulder at a red or white heat
would be hurled from Tenggers crater !
with terrific force, and, after going l
hundreds of feet into the air, would fall /
back with a whirr, crashing through the {
matched roof Of some Chinese fisher I
mans hut or crushing beneath its huge .
mass the body of some native peasant.
Fissure after fssure appeared in the I
sides Of the mountains, and here and G
here in the valleys there came great C
awning chasms. On the elevated
plains Of Kediri and Bandong the show ~
RS of stones, mud, and lava were not so
requent as in the lower portions of the z
sland, but were still destructive. tt
Much of the northern portion of the e.
sland, which was covered with tracts of h
Orests, was soon in one great blaze. o4
The red-hot vomitings from the craters
Iad set the trees on fire, and the giants p
f the woods fell one after another, like W
o many sheaves of wheat before a gale. n
Is the erUptions increased in frequency w
nd violence the disturbance of the ~,
'aters surrounding the barren coast be- :
anne more and more violent. Here the W.
-aves rushed in terrific force up the sp
5eep, rocky incline, breaking up on the III
crags and receding rapidly, fri
aving q lava flow cooled Just at the 50
.Oment when it was about to fall over !.
precipice, and there remaining, quickly w
lrdened by contact with the waters III
Id forming distinct strata of black and IN.
light red, purple and brown, all thrown gii
,out in the most eccentric masses. a
hile huge peaks of basalt rose at fre- +io
lent intervals, 'Io
There the waves came whelming over u
marshy plain along the shore, suddenly an'
quilting a hamlet of fishermen's rude st,
uses, and, turning suddenly back. tic
ept away almost every vestige of what mo
moment before had been a scene of -
sitting activity. What a few hours be- SUI
e were fertile valleys, covered with ser
plantations of coffee, rice, sou
gar, indigo, or tobacco, the staples of lite
2 island, were now but mud, stone, and hio
fields of destruction and iii9
n. Probably not a single crop in gre
va will be saved. thii
at the entrance to Batavia was a large ma
pup of houses extending along the VIII
ore and occupied by Cinnamon. This H.
rtion OF the city was entirely swept i''i y.
ay, and Of the twenty-five thousand dle'
llese who lived on this swampy plain tel,
S hardly probable that more than five den
,usand managed to save their lives. bo
ey stuck to their homes till the waves
ne that washed them away, fearing
torrents of the flame and the lava of
interior more than the torrents of
5er. OF the three thousand five hun n
d Europeans and Americans in Bata-
perhaps eight hundred perished. It nav
to make any estimate of OF
great pecuniary loss. Many of the min,
aars in the higher parts of the city VIII
e demolished. The Exchange and moi,
military hospitals suffered great H. H.
lage. ln"'
t AMER the European and American ton
rter was first overwhelmed by rocks, dent
4 and lava from the crater, and then and
waters came up and swallowed the tion
IS, leaving nothing to mark the site, III,
causing the loss of somewhere in the ileip
yhborhood of 200 lives of the inhabi- dues
s and those who tried to find a re- are