The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-01-22
Erakntoa, an Island Between SUI
matra and Java, in Most
Fearful Eruption.
The Explosions Heard ! 800 Miles Away
battle Hstwsen Neptune and vul-
oan-35, 900 Lives Lost.

f ~ > ~ ~ ~ ~As AtN 49, "" ANsS - -
stoncs and ashes; aaeond to that OF Heola
and Skaptar Jokull, contiguous mountain
in Icsland, in 1883. when two enormous lava
atrsnms, ono fifteen miles wide and over
100 feet deep and the other scarcely inferior,
flowed, the first, fifty miles and the other
forty, till they reached the sea, pouring q
flood of white hot lava into tho ocean,. do
s~troying everything in their paths and kill
ing in the waters OF the ocenn the fish, the
mainstay OF the inhabitants, who wore re-
duoed by the disaster, directly or Indirect
~, to less than ive-sixths of their former
strength, and third TO that of Galungung,
in 1922, which devastated such an immense
area in Java, but all this eruptions known
bssides were ns mere child's play to the ter
rible ono of Krakatoa in 1888. N
Tie tho reader will examine the map Of the
East Indies he will find represented in the
straits of Sunda, which lie between Sumatra
and Java, the little island of Krakatoa. In
maps made before 1888 he will hun in vain
for the name, for like Bull Run before 1861,
il was then unknown to fame, though navl-
gators who passed through the straits knew
it as q beautiful tropical isle, with an e1-
tinct volcanic cone in the center. In the
beginning Of 1883, however. tbs little we'll
behaved island showed symptoms Of
wrath that boded no good to the larger
islands in the vicinity. Noted fos the
fno fruits with which it abounded, it was u
famous picnic ground for towns and cities
even a hundred miles away, and when the
subtcrranean rumblings and mutterings of
wrath became conspicuous the people Of tho
capital of Java, Batavia, nut q steamboat
L .@ G& ..sAs -A ---1 -.l ~ s-1-.~xL -.
largo n umbers. For a time the island was
constantly in a slight trelnor, and the sub
terranaAn roar was lika the continued, but
distant mutterings of thunder, but the cri-
sis was reached Aug. %, at 10 o'clock 9. N.
1t was q beautiful Sunday morning and the
waters of the, straits of Sunda were like
that sea of glass, as clear az a crystal, OF
which John in his apocalyptle yislonspsaks.
The beauty that morning was enhanced by
the extraordinary transparency Of the
tropical air, for distant mountain
ranges seemed SO near that it seemed
possible to strike them with "a stono
cast from the hand. Only the mysterious
foroes beneath the island, disturbed the
brenthleEs calm and silence that lay on ma
ture-the calm befors tho terrible storm
the mightiest, the most awful on record !
1t burst forth! Sudden night snatched
away day from the eyes Of the terrified be-
AClaUA@ oA 49, ~1s NiAN
play Of lightnings around the ascending
column of dust penetrated even the deep
ob2curity to II distance of eighty miles.
This awful darkness stretched within a
circle whose diameter was 400 miles. whlla
moro or less darknes ro'gned within a
circle with q diameter three times al great.
Within this latter aroa dust fell like snow
from tho sky, breaking off limbs of trees
by its weight miles distant, while in Ba-
tavia. 100 miles away from the scene OF the
several inches. The explosions were
NO loud az to be distinctly heard in
Hindostan, 1900 miles away, and at
Batavia, the sound was like the constant
roar Of cannon in a field Of battle. Finally
the whole Island was blown to pieces and
"a battle of death between Neptune and
Vulcau-the sea poured down into tho
chRsm millions of tons only to be at first
converted into vapor by the millions Of
tons Of seething white-hot lava beneath.
Ovcr the shores thirty miles away, waves
IL fury that everything, even to a part OF
the bedrock was swept away. Blocks Of
stone Of fifty tons weight were carried two
miles inland. Or the Sumatra sid of the
straits a large vessel was carried three miles
iuland. The wave, of course growing less
in intensity, travelled across tie whole In
dian ocean, 5000 miles, to the Cape of Good
Hope and around it into the Atlantic.
The waves in the atmosphere travelled
around the globe three times at the rate of
700 miles per hour. The dust from the vol
cauo was carried up into tho atmosphere
fully twenty miles and the finest of it was
distributed through the whole body of air.
The reader doubtless remembers the beau
tiful reddish or purple glow at sunrise and
and sunset for fully six months after An
gust, 18S3-that glow was caused by vol
cnnio dust In the atmosphere interfering
with the passage of this suu's rays of the
upper part of the solar spectrum. more
manifest at sun-rising and setting than at
other times during the day, because at these
obliquely through the atmosphere and con-
Eequently penetrating n very deep layer,
were deprived Of all their colors except the
rcd.
The loss of life was appalling. The last
sight on earth to $1,000 people was that of
the awful eruption. Engulfed in tho ocean
or covered with heaps of ashes, q few hours
after the eruption commenced the awful
work was done, and that vast multitude
The fact that in the neiGhborhood of the
fountain there was n sparse population
counts for thore not being even a far
greater loss of life.
Notwithstanding the awfulness of vol
oanio and earthquake phenomena. there is
some silver lining to the dark clouds. They
prove that tho earth is yet a living planet.
Centuries must pass away before it will be-
come like the meon-a dead planet-with-
out water. mir or life. Our satellite is a
prophecy indeed of what the earth muat
eventually become when all it's life forces,
its internal energies, are dissipated into
spaoe.-Granville I. Foster in Scientific
and Mining Press.