Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, JULY 21, 1892. The Destruction of Sanguier.

Manawatu Herald, 21 July 1892, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, JULY 21, 1892. The Destruction of Sanguier.

Have a glance at the map of the Pacific ocean, then it will be perceived that lying off the continent of Asia are a large number of islands, almost fringing the coast line, till they break away in the Indian ocean at the far south of Siam, forming a dotted line to tho ifloi'th of Australia. These islands commence in the Okhotsk Sea with the island of Saghalien near the Bhores of the Russian empire, then Japan lies below, and the next is the well known island of Hong Kong, and almost direct south a^e the Phillipine islands. To the south and west of these is Borneo, below which again is, Sumatra, which extends to the Malay peninsula, whilst on the east is Java, then Flores, then Timor, on the north of the northern territory of Australia. To the north and east of Australia, is New Guinea, and between $ew Guinea and Borneo lie a multitude of islands of which Celebes is the largest, and just to the north of which is, Sanguier, the unfortunate island that lias disappeared. The captain of the steamer Catterbun was on his voyage from China to Timor and he would thus pass to the west of the Phillipine islands, go through the Sulu sea, lying between Borneo and the last named islands, pass Sanguier but where he obtained the news from the Dutch mail steamer, is not stated. The course through the Celebes Sea was marked with debris and wreckage for miles. . The course would then be through the Molucca sea and Banda sea to the island of Timor. The Celebes, with most of the other islands named, are under the sovereignty of the Dutch. The original inhabitants of Celebes, the Alfooras, occupy the interior, and the Boogis, a Bornean people inhabit the coasts, The island consists mainly of four large peninsulas traversed by mountain chains, with many active volcanoes. The population is stated to be some four millions, it is therefore extremely probable that the island of Sanguier had the population of 12,000 as mentioned.

We are all too unfortunately well aware of the volcanic nature of the islands of the Pacific Ocean, we have our own little outbursts, such as Tarawera ; the New Hebrides have many active volcanoes ; we know now that tha Celebes have, also that Japan is. frequently visited with serious earthquakes, so that such a dreadful occurrence as has been rereported is shocking, but cannot be said to be surprising. We have traced an outline of the islands lying within the sphere of this last outbreak, and mentioned Sumatra and Java. In the straits of Sunda dividing these two islands is the island of Krakatoa, which in August 1883 was so wonderfully altered by the eruption of its volcano, that the mountain was split in half, and stands facing the sea with a perpendicular cliff from 2000 to 8000 feet in height. The precipice thus formed exhibits a wonderful succession of lavas and tufas, giving thus a perfect insight, of a most unusual kind, into ""the internal structure of a volcano. The effect of this eruption was to spoil all reliance on previous surveys, and the government despatched a vessel to make arfresh one. The position of all these islands may therefore he looked upon as very uncertain.