Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

KEAKATAU. 89ashes and pumice was estimated at as much as 630 billions of cubic feet. Thewhole terrestrial atmosphere would even ajjpear to have been charged with theimpaljDable volcanic dust as far as the upper limits of the aerial spaces, at leastaccording to Norman Lockyer's theory, attributing the marvellous afterglows ofthe following autumn months to the igneous particles ejected by Krakatau onAugust 2Gth, 1883.* The seas also were agitated around the whole circumferenceof the globe, as attested by the readings of the mareographs at various oceanicstations, and in the Indian Ocean by the great marine wave which in thirteenhours was propagated as far as the Cape of Good Hope.The reports of the fugitives from the threatened villages and of the crews ofvessels near the scene of the distui-bance created an impression that the field ofdestruction had even been still more widespread. But after the ashes weredispersed, and skippers could again venture into the Sunda Strait, the spectaclerevealed to them seemed none the less harrowing and bewildering. The coasttowns of Anjer and Tjaringi on the Javanese side, Beneawang and Telokh-Betongon that of Sumatra, had disappeared, while no trace remained of the numerousvillages lately dotted along both shores. The cocoanut forests which fringed theseaboard to the foot of the hills had been swept clean away;a huge wave 100 to120 feet high, caused by the sinking of the volcano, had dashed against the coast,* Times, December 8th, 1883.