cr own readers

THE KRAKATOA ER UPT ION. 101
eye. All the way across the bay and the strait, ill
a line of flame reaching to Kra katoa itself , the bottom
of the sea seemed to have cracked opcn so that the
subterranean fires were belching forth. On eit her
side th e waters were pouring into this gulf with a
tremend ous noise, but the fire was not extingu ished.
Th e hi in~ roar brought out th e people of Anjer in
excited crowds.
1O. ~ Iy eyes were turned away for a moment as
I beckoned to some one, and during that momen t
came It terrible, deafening explosion. It stunned me:
and when I was able again to turn my eyes to the
bay , I could see nothing. Th e whole scene was
shrouded in darkness, from amid which came cries
and groans, the creaking of breaking beams in th e
houses, and above all the roar of the brea kers on th e
shore. Th e city of Anjer, with its sixty th ousand
people, had been engu lfed!
11. I afterwards found that the water was one
hundred feet deep where th e city of Anjer had been,
and that the coast-line had moved one and It half
miles inlan d, where th e city of Ne w Anjer is now
built. A big island in th e strait had been split in
two, wi th a wide passage bet ween it s t wo parts. An
'i land to the north-west of Kra katoa had disappeared.
Along the coast of Java for fifteen 01 ' twenty miles
man.r new islands were formed which afterwards
disappeared. Th e air was filled with minute particles
of du t, which afte r some weeks spread even to
Europe and America. 'What th e causes of such a
tremendous convulsion may hav e been it is quite
impossible accurately to SllJ'.
From th, Xarrati,." of .J. T. \"A" GESTEL.