THE KRAKATOA ERUPTION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1855, 19 February 1889, Page 4

THE KRAKATOA ERUPTION.

The lotig-looked-ior report of the scientific commission which investigated the great volcanic eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 i has at last made its appearance, and it seems strongly to confirm, the theory that the famous “red sunsets” 5 of 1 that time were caused by the canopy of dust and steam thrown up by that tremendous convulsion ■, pf nature. So great was the explosion of the burning mountain that the noise was heard over onethirteenth of the total surface of the earth. At Batavia, 30 miles away, buildings were 1 wrecked by the concussion. In Ceylon, 2000 miles away, a sotihd as of heavy guns was heard. At Kodrigiiez, nearly 3000 miles away, it war distinctly heard like the roar' of distant artillery. The sea wave' caused by the upheaval was perceived as- far away as the English Channel, while the great atmospheric wave swept'three times from Krakatoa to the antipodes and back again. Fully one and one-eight cubic miles of rock were hurled into the air, some fragments reaching a height of 31 miles while an incalculably vast cloud of dust and Tftpour filled the air at a height of from 17 miles to 28 miles. It is not difficult to believe that enough of this dust and vapour was was wafted to this side of the world to produce the beautiful phenomena that were the wonder and delight of every observer of the sunsets. —JS"ew York? Tribune.