The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-09-07
yESUyIUS, RIVAL.

/ area Va Ahty NhileS SquohC ." ~
Several Large Towns and Seventy-fve
Thousand Lives Destroyed-Graphic De-
scription OF the Awful Calamity.
NEW YORK, Aug. g.
A special cablegram from London gives
The details of the volcanic eruptions in
lava. The first eruptions were on Satur-
lay night on the island of Kraokateo. At
loon on Sunday the Maha Meru Mountain
began to belch forth fire and lava, and the
Eruption soon spread to the Cunning Teng-
ger, the crater of which is the largest in
he world, being nearly four miles in diam
.ter, the Cunning Guntun and other minor
mountains. until by Monday morning near
y third of the forty-five craters of Java
we're in n state of activity.
While these terrible elementary forces
we're at work on the land the sea became
alphabetically boisterous. The air was
20 surcharged with electricity that at one
lime fifteen water-spouts were seen. Hun.
lreds of the unfortunate people, unable to
escape from their dwellings before they
we're crushed beneath the mass of falling
stones and lava persisted. On the top OF
he Cunning Tengger, n mountain of flame
made scene of terrific grandeur. Fissure
after fissure appeared on the mountains
tide, and here and there in the valley a
! fawning chasm opened. The tracts of for.
.sts in the northern portion of Kraokatec
we're soon in blaze of flame, and immense
rees, some of them centuries old, toppled
over before the advancing sea of fire like
wheat before a gale. As the eruption in
creased in violence and frequency the dis
nrbance of the waters surrounding the
coast became more and more violent The
waves rushed with terrific force up the
steep, rocky incline, and meeting the uurn
ng lava cooled and fashioned it into the
most eccentric shapes. The receding wa.
;ers carried away many fisherman's hut
Along the shore are mostly plains which
;he sea overwhelmed, running growing crops
| Of coffee, rice, sugar, indigo or tobacco, and
| { is probable that not single crop will be
| saved.
Late Sunday afternoon and in the evening
| jhe volume of the disturbances suddenly
increased and the island seemed to be about
20 be completely buried in mass of fire
| and sulphurous ashes. At the same time
! The enormous waves began to burst with
! greater force upon the shores, coming i'll
/ some places far up into the interior. Great
| chasms opened in the earth and threatened
/ 60 engulf large proportion OF the Islands
! people and buildings. About midnight the
most frightful scene Of the whole distur.
/ Dances took place. Suddenly an enormous
] luminous cloud, similar to that which was
/ seen over the Cunning Guntur. but much
! greater i'll extent, formed over the Kanda
| "a range of mountains, which skirt the
| south coast of the island. This cloud grad
! Tally increased in size until it formed
: canopy of lurid red and whitish gray over
! 4 wide extent of territory. During this
| lime the eruptions increased, and streams
/ Of lava poured necessarily down the sides
| Of the mountain into the valleys, sweep
| ing everything before them. Here and
! there a stream Os lava would enter an arm
/ Of the sea or come in contact with the waters
/ Of a river. Then the nearest mean
! descent lava as it protruded from the great
stream would suddenly produce boiling
/ heat and rapid IMPORTATION. But the SUI.
/ perfine consolidation that almost instantly
snsued would prevent any further contact
/ The assures that opened in this thin crust
as it solicited would emit torrents of vapor
/ extending high into the air and making
/ tremendous kissing and seething sound,
\ As if thousand locomotives were simuta-
| neously letting off steam. Here and there
4 in the lava streams were innumerable thin,
| plate-like crystals of feldspar, arranged in
| trains, one behind the other, i'm the direc-
ton of the flow of the current, and field.
| sparic spherolites were rapidly formed in
| The vitreous matter, resembling those which
form in the Stag of glass furnace. One OF
| The most singular freaks of the eruption
was the carrying in the midst of molten lava
| Of a bed of solid ice of enormous size, which
| had been emitted from one of the craters,
| carried along by the current and landed on
| the extremity of Point st. Nicholas on the
| northeast corner of the island. This bed OF
! ice was surrounded by thick envelope of
sand and scoria, which are such non-con-
luctors of heat that a red-hot stream of
lava running over it will not melt the snow.
1t is supposed this ice had formed the crust
| IF some vast subterranean lake.
About two o'clock Monday morning the
great cloud suddenly broke into small Sec.
| lions and quickly vanished. At the same
! time the most frightful rumblings were
heard and the columns of fire and smoke
On the southeast corner of the island ceased
| 70 ascend, while the craters in the other
| parts of Java seemed to open their fiery
throats still wider to let out the greatest
| quantity of rocks, lava, pumice and ashes
| yet vomited out.
The kissing of the sea became so loud as
TO be almost deafening, and the waves
| rushed upon the shores to an unprecedent-
ed height. When daylight came it was
! seen that an enormous tract of land had
disappeared, extending from Point Capucin
on the south, to Negery Pafsoerrang on the
north, and west to a low point, covering an
extent of territory fifty miles square. In
| this were situated the villages of Negery
and Negery Babawang. Of the people in.
| hahiting these places and the natives scat
tered sparsely through the forests and on
the plains, none escaped a frightful death.
This section of the island was not so dense.
ly populated as the other portions, and the
loss of life was comparatively small.
although it must have aggregated fully
| 800 souls. The entire kandang range OF
mountains, extending along the coast in a
semi-circle for about sixty miles, had
| gone out of sight. The waters of Welcome
Bay, the Sunda Straits and Pepper Bay on
| the east and of the Indian Ocean on the
south had rushed in and formed a great
sea of turbulent waters. Here and there
the peak of a high crater was exposed for
moment by the receding of great wave
| and occasionally a puff of brownish gray
smoke or slight shower of rocks
showed that the volcanoes still con-
tinued in active subterraneous erup:
ton. The debris. of the submerged and
| destroyed buildings was tossed hither and
thither over the inhabitated land where all
was now a waste of water.
The aggregate loss of life from the vari
GUS elements of the terrible disturbances
! must be fully 5000, but the number of
those who persisted can of course never be
Appropriated.
A violent shock occurred in the Island Of
Sumatra Monday forenoon, and it was
feared other violent disturbances might fol-
low. Middle Island, ten miles off the jaw.
anese coast, and half way between the ex.
IRENE points of Java and Sumatra, was 81.
most wholly engulfed in these. The small
Island of s;ingkel, probably only originally
a cave blown up by an eruptive paroxysm,
entirely disappeared. 1t was uninhab
tied.
The town of Tanerang, within twenty.
five miles of the city of Batavia, was
swept away by the lava streams and fully
half the people, mostly Javanese, number.
ing about l 800, persisted.
int 1ntc ha
red hot rocks set fire to the houses and
swept away all the thickly settled portion