VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS AND TIDAL WAVES.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3828, 23 October 1883, Page 4

VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS AND TIDAL WAVES.

Seismology is one of the youngest of sciences, but its progress is not likely to bo hindered from lack of material. Scarcely have we recovered from tho shock of the Ischia calamity when news of a similar catastrophe reaches us from the other side of tho world. Java is celebrated for its volcanoes, just as J;ipan, further north, is notorious for its earthquakes—so notorious that an irritable seismologist has called it "the lid of Hell." Every Englishman who has journeyed to the far East is familiar with Anjor Point, on the north-west coast of Java, as one of the welcome places of call where a stock of fresh vegetables and fruit can be laid in. Opposite this, in Sunda Strait, lies the volcanic island of Krakatoa, the eruption of which has led to what is feared may be a sweeping disaster. Serang and Batavia, we are told, were in darkness on August 27, while the ashes and stones discharged from the volcano had travelled as far as ChcriUm, some 2 i>!) miles east of their source. To complicate matters, what is called a " tidal wave " had rushed apparently over tho west and northwest coast of the islands, choked up the rivers, overflowed the land, and swept away the European quarter at Anjer and tho Chinese camp at Morale. Jt is to be feared that there must have been considerable destruction of life, but to what extent cannot bo known till details arrive.

Java, with its .sixteen active, and innumerable quiescent, volcanoes, is .used to eruptions, some of which have been even more destructive than tlio Ischia earthquake. This volcano of Krakatoa has been in a state of unusual activity for some weeks, and had it not been for the "tidal wave," its activity might have subsided without doing , material damage. Some of the Java volcanoes rise to a height of 12,000 ft., and, as wo have .said, in past time their eruptions have been enormously destructive. In 1772, for example, the volcano of Papandayang, in the south-west part of the island, threw such an immense quantity of seorne and ashes in a single night, that an area having - a radius of seven miles was covered with a layer oOft thick. Forty native villages were buried beneath it, and 3000 persons are supposed to have perished in one night. Still more terribly destructive- was the eruption of Mount G-alunggong, a few miles cast of the former, on October 8, ISB2. At midday, under a cloudless sky, witli not a breath stirring , , a dark, dense mass rose from the old volcano and spread itself out with such appalling - rapidity that in a few moments tho whole landscape was shrouded in the clnrkncss of night. Bright ilashes occasionally pierced the darkness ; a deluge of hot water and mud shot up from (lie crater, and poured down the mountain sides, sweeping iiway trees and beasts and human bodies in its seething mass. Nearly everything was destroyed for a radius of twenty miles round. A second eruption four days afterwards completed the catastrophe This was accompanied by an earthquake : the summit of the mountain was broken down ; one sido, covered with forest, became a semicircular gulf; new hills and valleys are eaid to have been formed, and rivers had their courses changed. As many as 111 villages were destroyed, and 4000 people killed. The remarkable thing is that no record existed of any previous eruption of the mountain, which was situated in one of the most fertile valleys of Java. In 18-13 it is estimated that Mount Giintuo flungforth ashes and sand to the extent of 20,000,000 tons; inlBG7 an earthquake caused tho death of 1000 people in the town of Jokgokiirta alono ;in 1872 ouo of the most active volcanoes, Merapi, brought death to many of the dwellers around ; while the damage to be feared from the ashes thrown out by tho same mountain interferes with tho planting of coffee in the neighboring districts. Earthquakes destructive to life arc of frequent occurrence ; the most celebrated is that of January 6, 1099, when 208 shocks wero felt, and many houses in Batavia destroyed. Mud volcanoes, gas fountains, and hot springs aro common over tho island. From Java to Kamchatka seismical phenomena in the shape of volcanoes and. earthquakes are of constant .occurrence, though' tho accompanying , tidal wave is not so common as we find it on the other side of the Pacific or tho coast of South America,