Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-03-14

| rushed pon the neigh boring shores, and
overwhelmed IN its course 81, 900 people.
! Over tSenty-hye hundred miles away, IN
| the haFbor S. & @driguez. near Mauritius,
/ the resulting wave had force enough to
make the WAFER boil las Ia q pot" to toss
the boats about, and 10 mate sham tide
/ ebb to dow 50 tnat 'ths inner harbor"
was for a time left almost dry. Even in
| the English channel the instruments used
| for observing the movements of the tide
recorded a disturbance, so far did the
ever widening circle OF the wave extend.
| The air was no less agitated than the
sea, and bore the tidings of the great
cOnvulsiou with even greater certainty.
! At place 5000 miles away the sound of
/ the eruption was heard distinctly, like
! the distant -oar of heavy guns, and in
many places less remote, but still remov-
( ed by over COO or even :, 600 miles the
noise was so pronounced that it was be
lieved to be caused by some ships firing
| signals Of distress, and search vessels
| were in some instances sent out.
But where the air ceased to transmit
the sound j. nevertheless passed the
message on with com plete precision.
The general result of atmOs pheric obser-
Walton taken all over the world show that
an air wave WIS propagated at Krakatoa
which spread TO It's G1tjpodes There it
was reflected or 70 pToduced ana sent back
again to Krakatoe; and this aerial game
of battledor and shuttiecock vas continu
ed though with diminishing vivaoity no
less than times.
The rate at which this air wave travelled
was prodigious: Il took only Is hours 45
minutes for the wave to reach Greenwich,
The detonations which produced sounds
so terrific that they could be heard as We
have noticed, 5000 miles away, and dis
turhed the whole of our atmosphere, were
caused by the sea bursting IN upon the
volcano. As the walls Of the crater were
broken down by the violence Of the erup-
tiOr the sea rushed in and ex plosions
were produced.
The explanation given account for TO
this result is too curious not TO be men
toned. There is a well-known plan
of making lazy geyzer play by throw
ing in earth and stones. The stones and
earth choke the mouth of the geyser and
prevent the escape of gas till enough
has accumulated to blow the obstruction
into the air. The thrush to sea water
acted in q similar way. The water cooled
the top of the lava, and suppressed for
q time Its election.
When, however, sufficient force had
! been accumulated the outburst became
more violent than ever, and the imprisOn-
| ed gases hurled the masses of lava high
into the air with g sound perhaps IN
| heard in the worlds history, certainly
Incompatible TO any ordinary noise in
nature. Since the largest portion of the
report is devoted to the atmosphere
| phenomena caused by the volcanic dust
in all parts of the world, it would be i'm
possible not to mention them here
though they were probably observed by
most of our readers the mselves az the
! time.
In the actual neighbOrhood OF the
eruption the strange and weird s0eota
Gle of blue, green, oOpPer-colored, and
silver suns we're seen. At greater dis
| lance, however, the haze formed of min
ute atoms of dust only p1odnced red
! green, and gold sunset CLOVIS and after
CLOVIS. IN connection with the sunset
CLOVIS one of the most curious features
Of the report is a list of all the occasions
on which similar phenomena are record
ed to have been noticed in Europe and
elsewhere. All these occasions are con
| temporaneous with periods OF great vol
oanjc activity.