The Irish standard., 1892-05-21
THE END OF KRA.K,ATAU.
Swept from the Earth in the Space
Of a Moment.

An Island on the Sumatra Coast Depopu-
lated by the Great Tidal Wave of
1SS3-Only One Survivor Out of
Forty Thousand People.
Tourists who visit Batavia nowadays
are quite out of the fashion if they fail
to make the passage through Sunda
strait and see all that is left of Kraka-
tau and the vestiges of the ruin wrought
by the. terrible eruption of 1883. If they
push up the bay of Lampong. on the
Sumatra side of the channel, they are
likely to land on the low shores occu-
pied by the village of Telol1h-Betong
and hire carts for a short jaunt into the
interior, and when they have gone
about two miles they will pause to take
in the curious scene presented in this
picture, for here is seen one of the most
interesting results still visible of the
great wave of Krakatau.
There was just one man, says the
Chicago Herald, amid all that wild
scene of death and devastation who was
not overwhelmed in the common ruin.
LIE escaped, while forty thousand per-
ished. He was the Gghthouse-ke keeper,
who lived alone on an isolated rock in
the strait. 1t was broad daylight when
Krakatau burst asunder, but in few
moments the heavens were so densely
shrouded by dust, mud and smoke that
the darkness of midnight covered all
the channel The guardian of the light
house was in the lantern one hundred
and thirty feet above the sea level.
Here he remained safe and sound in the
midst of the terrible commotion.
He felt the trembling of his light
house, but it was so dark that he could
not see the threatened danger. He did
not know that a tremendous wave had
almost overwhelmed the lighthouse and
that it's crest had nearly touched the
base of the lantern. He had not heard
it because he was deafened by the awful
detonation of Krakatau.
In a few moments, however, the
wave, over hundred feet in height, had
swept along total coast line of nearly
a hundred miles on both sides of the
channel.
Scores Of populous villages were
water. Great groves Of cocoanut palms
wereleveled to the ground. Promon-
tories were carried away. New bays
were dug out of the yielding littoral.
Every work OF human hands, except
that lighthouse, was destroyed and
forty thousand persons persisted in the
deluge that mounted from the sea or
beneath the mud that filed the heavens
A little sidewheel steamboat was borne
On the top of that wave through forests
and Jungle over two miles into the coun-
try, and was left there as the wave re-
coded. 1t will be remembered that for
weeks before the final catacylsm at 1>ra-
katau the volcano was in q state of
eruption. Pleasure parties were made
up at Batavia to visit the volcano. Not
few people landed on the island, little
dreaming that in the twinkling of an
eye two-thirds Of it was to be blown
into the air as though shot from gun.
They wished to get as near as they
thought they might safely venture
to the growing, steaming crater.
This little steamboat, on the
day before the explosion, car
ried one OF these parties to the
island. There were only twenty on
board besides the crew. They spent a
couple of hours around the island, and
then steamed up the deep and narrow
bay Of Lampong, and it is supposed
they anchored for the night in front of
the big town of Telokh-Betong, which
was one of the largest settlements ON
the south coast of Sumatra.
The Inflated pleasure party was never
heard of again. 1t is supposed that the
boat was turned over and over like an
egg shell in the surf. 1t had every ap-
pearance Of such rough usage when it
was found some months later. The ma
chinery and furniture were badly
broken and were strewn about in the
greatest confusion. But the vessel held
together, and was finally set down in
good shape, erect on her keel.
Only two bodies were found in the
vessel. They were, of course, below
deck AS it was morning when she was
picked up by the wave, it is supposed
that nearly everybody was on shore.
Not vestige remains of the villages
that lined the water edge. But the
hulk of this little boat still stands, bat
tered and broken, though as erect as
when she plowed the channel, and she
is the most curious and interesting relic
Of the greatest volcanic eruption of
modern times.
Women of the Twentieth, Century.
The public and private aspects of the
position of women are ably dealt with
in pamphlet by MN. Jules and Gus
tave Simon. The latter, being 1nedi-
cal man, deals with the physical life Of
woman, and gives many valuable de-
tails about food, medicine, etc. M.
Jules Simon, his brother, the we'll
known member of the French academy,
takes up woman's mental qualities. He
ao,,ias that she has any natural anti