The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-08-31
Seventy-Five Thousand People Said to Have
Perished by the Tidal Wave, the Fire,
or in SulphurOus Ashes.
Disappearance of an Entire Range of
Coast Mountains.
A Number of Smaller Islands Swallowed Up
by the Seattle Havoc Widespread
and Appalling.
A DEVASTATED ISLAND.

Seventy Five Thousand Lives Lost, and Fifty
Square Miles of Land Sunk in the Sea.
LONDON Aug. 30.-Further particulars of
the great volcanic eruption in Java which
have Just reached London from Batavia,
show that the disaster was even more wide
spread and more disastrous than reported in
yesterdays advices. At noon on Sunday the
eruption and shocks were supposed to have
reached their height, but late in the after
noon and evening the violence of the dis
turbances suddenly increased and the island
seemed TO be about to be completely buried
i'll fire and sulphurous ashes. At the same
time the enormous waves began to dash with
greater force upon the shores, coming in some
places far up into the interior, and great
chasms opened in the earth and threatened
to engulf large proportion of the people
and buildings.
About midnight the most frightful scene
of all took place. Suddenly an enormous
luminous cloud, similar to that which was
seen over the Cunning Guntur, but much
greater in extent, formed over the Kandang
range of mountains, which skirt the south
east coast of the island. This cloud
gradually increased in size until it formed
canopy of lurid red and whitish gray over
wide extent of territory. During this
time the eruptious increased, and streams of
lava poured incessantly down the sides Of
the mountains, sweeping everything before
them. Here and there a stream of lava
would enter an arm of the sea or come in
contact with the water of river.
m
duce boiling heat and rapid vapor-
ization, but the superficial consolida-
ton that almost instantly ensued would pre-
vent any further contact with the water The
fissures that opened in this crust as it solidi-
fed on the stream of lava emitted torrents of
vapor, extending high in the air and making
a tremendous seething sound, as if a thou
sand locomotives were simultaneously let
ting off steam. Here and there the lava
streams were like crystals of feldspar, ar
ranged in trains one behind the other in the
direction of the flow of the current, and
feldspathic spherolites were rapidly formed
in the vitreous matter, resembling those
which form in the Stag of glass furnaces.
None of the people inhabiting these places
or of the natives scattered sparsely through
the forest and on the plains escaped death.
This section of the island was not so densely
populated as the other portions, and the loss
of life was comparatively small, although it
must have aggregated fully fifteen thousand
souls.
The entire Kandang range of mountains,
extending along the coast in a semi-circle for
about sixty-fve 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 sea of turbulent waters Here
and there the peak of crater was exposed
for moment by the receding of great
wave, and occasionally a puff of brownish
gray smoke or a slight shower of rocks
showed that the volcanoes still continued in
active subaqueous eruption. The debris of
the submerged and destroyed buildings was
tossed hther and thither on the water the
sign left that there had once been inhabited
land there.
The town of Tanoang, within twenty-five
miles of the city of Batavia was swept away
by the lava stream, and fully half the popu-
lation, mostly Japanese, numbering about
1,S00 perished At Speelwyk, near Point
Salcis, the red-hot rocks set fire to the houses
and swept away all the thickly-settled por-
ton of the town. About ten bazaars belong
ing to Europeans were destroyed. The loss
of property is very great, but no lives are
known to have been lost. The river Jacatra,
on the banks of which Batavia is situated,
was so completely damned by the lava and
debris that its course was changed, and from
Franien bastion it flowed down through Ty-
gers street and joined the waters of the river
Emerades, swelling that stream to such an
extent that it rose high on the Castor bat
teries Fi9elenknig was almost totally de-
stroyed, and large number of lives were
lost there.
The island of Onius, five miles off the
mouth of the Targerang river and twenty
miles east of Batavia, was completely inun-
dafed. and the floating dock there was totally
destroyed. -
Coataye, Clop3ond Tronwers islands, of
the portion of Java, ttich disappeared are
still out of sight, and nop tlIie,ostige of them
is left. Baby and Cheribo ISLANDS, off the
north coast, lost the few houses and inhabit-
ants upon them.
One of the most singular freaks of the erup-
ton was the carrying in the midst of the
molten mass of bed of solid ice of enor-
nous size, which had been emitted from one
of the creators. 1t was carried along by the
current and landed on the extremity OF Point
ST. Nicholas, at the northeast corner OF the
island. This bed of ice was surrounded by a
| thick envelope of sand and scori@, which are