The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-05-04
TIE END OF KRAKATAU.
Swept from tho Earth in tho Space
OF q Moment.
AN Island ON the Sumatrn Coast Dcpopu-
lated Ivy the Great Tidal Wave of
1SS3-Oniy One Survivor Out OF
Forty Thousand People.

to make the passage through Sund;.
strait and sec all that is left Of !I,.aila-
tau and the vcstigcs of the ruin wrought
by the terrible eruption of 1855 If they
push up the bay Of Lanpong, on the
Sumatra side of the channel. they arc
likely to land on the low shores o.cu-
pied by the village of Tclollh-Hctonr
and hire carts for II 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 krallatau.
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-
lshed He was the lighthouse keeper,
who lived alone on an isolated rock in
the strait. twas broad daylight when
krakatau burst asundcr, but in n few
moments the heavens were so tcnsclv
shrouded 10y 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 fcct above the sea- level.
midst of the terrible commotiop.
lie felt the trembling of his light
house but it was SO dark that he could
not sec the threatened danger lie did
not know that Il tremendous wave had
almost overwhelmed the lighthouse and
that it's crest had nearly touched the
base of the lantern. He had not heard
1t because he was dcafcncd by the awful
dctOnation Of Krulatau
In few moments, however, the
wave, over hundred feet in height, had
swept along a total coast line of nearly
hundred miles on both Sides of the
channel
Scores of populous villages were
buried deep beneath the avalanche of
water Great groves of cocoanut palms
We're lcvcicd to the ground. Promon-
torres were carried away. New bays
were dug cat Of the yielding littoral.
Every work of human hands, cxcept
that lighthouse, was destroyed and
forty Thousand persons persisted in the
dclugc that mounted from the sea or
beneath the mud that filed the heavens.
n little sidewheel steamboat was borne
on the top Of that wave through forests
and jungle over two miles into the conn
try, and was left there as the wave re-
coded. 1t will be remembered that for
weeks before the final catacylsm at IRA
katau the volcano was in Il state of
eruption. Pleasure parties were made
up ut Batavia to visit the volcano. Not
few people landed on the island, little
dreaming that in the twinlslng of an
eye twO-thirds of it was to be blown
into the air as though shot from n 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
ricd one of these parties to the
island. There We're only twenty on
board besides the crew. They spent n
couple of hours around the island, and
then steamed up the deep and narrow
bay of Larnpong, and it is supposed
they 2nchored for the night in front of
the big town OF Tclollh-Bctong, 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 an
pearancc of such rough usage when it
was found some months later. The ma
elmer 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 vcstige 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 plcwcd the channel. and she
is the most curious and interesting relic
Of the greatest volcanic eruption of
modern times.
Women of the Twentieth Century,