THE VOLCANIC ERUPTION AT JAVA.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1373, 25 October 1883, Page 4

THE VOLCANIC ERUPTION AT JAVA.

This terrific event, which has followed so closely on the heels of the terrible catastrophe at Ischia, would seem in some way to have been connected with it. The accounts at present to hand are almost as appalling in their details as those which are told of the awful earthquake of Lisbon in 1755, though they lack the dramatic incidents of that occurrence. Yet in one moment it appears that the features of the locality have been entirely changed, and the Straits of Sunda are perhaps unnavigable. Something similar occurred in 1815, when Sir Stamford Raffles was Governor of Java. A volcano burst forth at Tomboro, in the island of Lambawa. The noise of the explosion was heard at Sumatra, 970 miles away, and for a long time it was thought that some severe naval engagement was taking place. Ashes fell for a distance of 300 miles, and the commander of s.s. Benares, who happened to be near the scene of the eruption, records that the darkness was appalling, so intense, he says, that it was impossible to see tht'lmnd when held close to the face. When daylight appeared, the ship was found to be covered with ashes, and the sea for miles was strewn with floating pumice-portions of which appeared like vast islands. It is a strange thing that no satisfactory explanation has yet been given of these terrible phenomena. Some euppose that the lunar influences occasionally precipitate them, but there is no direct evidence that this is so, It is remarkable that the greatest volcanoes are always found ranged along, and close to the greatest ocean, and none exists at any great distance inland. Hence there is some reason to believe that the sea takes a share in the disturbance, though of course the tidal wave, which usually work such terrible havoc are due to the oscillation of the earth’s surface, I found a record in an old book some time since of what is supposed to have been volcanic action in Wales, as recently as 1773. A certain mountain called Moelfamura is credibly reported to have groaned and trembled and thrown forth smoke and ashes, but as a portion of the top seems to have given way at the same time, these phenomena way only have been mechanical clouds of duet, and may have been mistaken for smoke by the awc-etriken spectators j at any rate, I cannot find any geological evidence bearing on the queaiion, Certainly earthquakes are felt here occasionally, and not in Scotland, but such evidence of volcanic action as exist, and they are many, are referred to epochs of immense age. The city of Bath is probably in an ancient crater, but the Avon has since cut its way through the centre. —Home Letter 2Y.£. Times.