Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-02-11

connected with the eliminating explosions.
BY successive waves, the largest of which oc-
CURED soon after 10 o'clock, the towns of
Amjer, Telokbetong, Tyringin, Merak, and
many villages were swept away. The height
of the great wave was about 100 feet at Merak,
about so feet at Katinbang, ~ feet at Telokbe-
tong, where the man-of-war Berouw was car
| ried nearly miles inland up the valley and
left about so feet above the level OF the sea-
The actual height of the wave before reaching
the shore appears to have been about so feet.
| The travels of the principal sea waves and
many details respecting them are given with
great elaboration by Capt. Wharton, Toward
the west the wave was propagated to greater
distances than have hitherto been recorded Of
| any such disturbance. The waves were OBJ
served at Mauritius, and lasted for several
hours, creating considerable commotion, and
| driving coasters from their anchorage. The
coasts of France give indications of the arrival
| of several waves in succession, and at Havre, a
| distance of 10, $50 miles, undulations up to /
| inch are taken to represent the same disturb
ance.
GAN UPHEAvAL OF THE SEA BOTTOM
must have been very slow to account for the
| length of the wave; no earthquake was OBJ
| served, and the evidence generally is against
earth disturbance as a cause. The author Of
the geological section observes that the bulk of
the fragments thrown out during the explosions
must have fallen into the sea, and by their inn
pact. almost coinciding with the violent evils
ceration of the crater, must have contributed
to the rush of the destructive waves, and Capt.
Wharton calculates that fiftieth part of the
missing mass of Krakatoa. which was estimated
to be at least 200 900, 900 600 cubic feet would
by dropping suddenly into the water, form a
wave circle Of 100 miles in circumference, 20
| feet high and $50 feet wide. But this is clearly
totally inadequate to account for the long wave
and he therefore believes that the destructive
waves in the Strait of Sunda were mainly due
to masses falling into the sea or to sudden ex-
| plosions under the sea, but that the long wave
| recorded by distant tide gauges had its origin
| in upheaval of the bottom.
1.-The immediate consequences of the great
explosion were that wave SO feet high and of
great breadth swept along the strait, and with
| diminishing height traversed the Southern
ocean; the sea for hundreds of miles was COW
| cred with masses of pumice descended from
! the darkened sky, an air-wave of unexampled
| grandeur was circling round the globe, impen-
| etrable darkness extended for scores of miles
| IN many directions, ashes and dust fell in great
| quantities on ships hundreds of miles distant,
and within circle of 1000 miles people of
| many nations and languages were unsuccess-
fully puzzling at the riddle of strange noises.
| This was not all. Not only were earth and sea
disturbed and the air darkened near the Sunda
strait. but on the same day the blue sky was
almost covered with thin white mantle a
| thousand miles and more westward, and the
sun himself was almost eXtinguished. struggling
| through the mist, either like q dull red lamp
or bali of fire, or like weak moon, or. as at
Batavia, emerging from the dust cloud trans
formed to green.
THE RAPTDITY OF THESE EVENTS
is surprising. Within "a hours of the explo-
sion strangely-colored suns were seen at enor-
nous distances up to 1000 miles, at such
widely-sundered places as Labuan, Ceylon, and
Diego Garcia. The Ceylon observation indeed
is open to question, being native report from
thn MOI hem, 49, ,sla
to sunrise of the 9th. that is, before the major
eruption occurred, and unsupported by fur
Their testimony from Ceylon and India. 1t APP
| pears certain that already on the 18th. vessels
! 1000 miles westward of Java experienced
some very singular phenomena showing the
passage overhead of broad stream of dust
| from the eruptions of that day, and we may
! fairly infer that some of the heavier matter
composing that dust cloud fell into a strong
southerly wind blowing toward the coast of
| Ceylon and traversed the distance of about
]. 100 miles III about 20 hours. Thus the Cevlon
observation, and perhaps Capt Vereker's near
| Labuan as well, would refer to cloud streams
| of dust and steam, of no great magnitude the
| one filtered out from a current going rapidly
| westward, and the other carried by the south
west monsoon toward Japan. The early ar
rival (23th) in Japan of matter causing a cop
perry sun would be similarly due to the south
west monsoon bearing the products of the 26th.
On the 2Sth, at 1.200 miles due west
OF the volcano. the sky was very hazy and
A FINE WHITE POWDER
fell in q constant shower like snow. covering
the whole ship Many other ships had similar
experiences. The sun was nearly obscured by
pale yellowish haze on the 29th and 3Oth. At
about 800 miles west a quantity of light dust.
like Portland cement. fell at the same time
So late September a deposit of sand oc-
CURED on board the Scotia in 100 north So east;
at the same time partial halo formed around
the sun, and the moon was green before set
ting; on the following morning the sun was
green, and the sky for several days was covered
| with haze. In the Atlantic, at st. Helena, on
August 30, red light like distant fire sur
prised one of the inhabitants at a. m, and on
the same day remarkable glare and leaden
| sky were noticed in other parts of the Atlantic
within the tropics. On the following day, so
| far as 13o 30 north. 80 90 west, curious
| rlc-llghtappearance' and other phenomena
were noted, and near the equator the sun was
| like copper. with a metallic haze over the sky.
| On September 2, at To- south of the
| equator, the sun was like polished lead and the
whole sky gray, and on the same day the whole
| of the northern part of South America was
astonished with blue suns or red skies.
THE GREAT CLOUD.
"These phenomena continued their rapid
course westward and by September seem to
have covered nearly the whole of the Pacific
within the same ATTITUDES On September s
nearly the whole of Gndia; the dust cloud was
already well advanced on its second circuit of
| the globe. On the odd the green suns returned
! in force to India; the stream of matter was now
! on its third circuit, and can be traced to the
western Atlantic on September 2S; after this
| its increasing tenuity prevented further obser-
vations definite enough to be used in the tables
| of velocity. During the whole of its rapid and
Wonderfully even revolution round the earth
| the great cloud was extending itself less con-
| spicuously toward the north and south, and
many scattered observations in the temperate
| zones afford evidence that the sitting out OF
| heavier particles continued without Interrupt
ton, and that these in sufficient quantity to
! produce moderate after-glow were carried by
| the anti-trades and other elevated currents to
great distances. The comparison In
the glare of a fire was made in almost every
country where the fore-glows and after-glows
| appeared in many places, and especially in
| France, the red skies were attributed to aurora
indeed the theory of aurora was held very
| persistently."
Edwin Booth Nightly Puzzled.
| ONCE UPON T1aE HE HELPED KELLAR PICK UP
TABLE BY MAGNETISM.
| From the New York Tribune.
| Kelar, the miraculous, tells a story on Ed