Morris tribune., 1884-09-03
The Red Sunsets.

The way in which men take the I'M
expected is an excellent gauge OF their
state of mind. Sudden changes IN the
face of nature bring the man out OF
his burrow and exhibit his hidden mo-
tives. Fifty years ago the meteorlc
shower of 1888 showed that the less
cultivated class, even in America, still
looked upon the accidents of the skies
as SIGNS of heavenly wrath and por-
tents of coming ills. Now even the
least educated no longer ask, What
does this presage? but What is It's
causep Naturalism has advanced fast
and far in the last century.
The autumn of 1883 will always
have large place in scientific history
on account of the strange aspect OF Its
heavens, as we'll as on account OF the
preceding eruptions of volcanoes IN
the Straits of Sunda, which IN their
grandeur and effects much exceeded
any disturbance recorded in history.
Although the volcanic outburst
changed the geography of large dis
trict, destroyed somewhere near one
hundred thousand lives, and sent the
ocean waves and throbs of the air pro
duced by the CONFUSION over the whole
circumference of the earth, its nature
was not unusual it differed from a
thousand similar accidents of this
troubled world only in degree, only
as the discharge of twenty-ipch can
non differs from that of small field
piece. But the strange heavens of the
later autumn, the fiery glow OF sun
&hn vel houq
that girdles the sun all day, are phen-
omena so out of the range of common
experience that at first all tho experts
in meteorology were at sea in their ex-
plantations. At the outset, many of
these students of the atmosphere
turned naturally to the conjecture that
some of the vagrant matter OF space,
such as we see in the comets or dust
like meteors, had been drawn down
upon our atmosphere, and so envel-
oped the earth with meteoric mist.
Others looked upon these movements
as mere intensifcation of the after
glow, or second sunset, which is not an
unfamiliar phenomenon in all extra
tropical regions at certain seasons OF
the year, particularly in the autumn,
and which is probably due to the con-
densation of vapor in the upper reg
ions of the atmosphere. Gradually,
as the facts have been gathered in
from all parts of the world, the ex-
plantations have been oyerthrown, and
the sunsets have been proven to be in
some way connected with the Javanese
CONFUSION. At several points in Eu-
rope the new-fallen snow contains par
ticles of volanic dust essentially like
those that fell upon the decks of ships
near the point of eruption, and which
presumably are the heavier bits that
have descended from dust-cloud in the
upper air.
Still further, it has been shown that
these curious appearances of the sky
occurred more quickly in the district
near the volcano than in regions re-
mote from it. 1t is not easy to deter
mine the precise time when the sunset
and sunrise became so brilliant for at
first the phenomenon might seem acct
dental in its nature, and SO not become
recorded. Yet it is clear that at Rod
riguez, Mauritius, and Seychelles,
points from three thousand to three
thousand five hundred miles west OF
Krakatoa, the red sunsets were seen
on the 2Sth of August, within thirty
six hours after the eruption occurred.
In Brazil, which is over ten thousand
miles away, they appeared on the 30th
of September. In Florida, thirteen
thousand miles distant, on September
9Th. 1t was noticed in England on the
9th of Sentember. but in Sweden not
until the 3Oth of November; each OF
these countries being about seven
thousand five hundred miles from the
point of eruption, The volcanic mist
spread more rapidly in the tropical
belt between the parallels of latitude
in which Java lies than in the regions
to the north and south of this line
Sweeping swiftly about the earth IN
this tropical belt, it seems to have beer
carried thence by some slower motion
to higher latitudes.-N: S. Shaler IN
.ApT'iL atlantic.