Show FORMER ERUPTIONS OF KRAKATAF Tho earliest accounts Krakatau we have been able to obtain are contained in a curious old volume Aenmerckelijke Reysen van Elias Hesse nae en in OostIndian vant jaar 1680 to 1684 Remarkable Journeys of Elias Hesse to the East Indies from the year 1680 to 16S4 published in Utrecht in 1694 The author relates that he passed on the 19th of November 1681 the Island of Cracatouw which Is uninhabited uninhab-ited It had about a year before broken out in eruption It can be seen far at eea when one is still many miles distant from it on account ac-count of the continually ascending smoke of the fire we were with our ship very close under the shore we could perfectly well and accurately see the wholly burned trees on the top of the mountain but not the fire itself About the same period Johann Wil heim Vogel one of the Dutch East I India Companys servants who nnb lished in 1716 a very interesting account of his travels there na3sed through the straits He says On February 1 1681 by Gods help in front of the Straits of Bunda Wherewith where-with great astonishment I saw that the island of Crackatouw which on my former journey to Sumatra appeared ap-peared so very green and gay with trees lay now altogether burned up and waste before my eyes and spued out fire from great fireholes And on inquiry at the ship Captain at what time it broke out I was told that it was In May 16SO The former year and when he was on his voyage from Bengal he had ms with a great storm and about ten miles from this island he encountered an earthquake earth-quake on the sea followed by moat frightful thunders and cracklings from which he Imagined that an island or else a piece or the land had burst up and shortly thereafter aa they drew a little closer with the ship to the land and were come near to the mouth of the Sunda Straits it was evident that the Island of Crackatouw had burst out and kis conjecture was correct for he and all the ships company perceived the strong sulphur sul-phur atmosphere also the sea covered cov-ered with pumice which they scooped up as curiosities Save for the observations of passing travelers by whom the great beauty of Its treeclad elopes the first verdAnt = ver-dant spot to meet the eye after weary weeks at sea has been gratefully grate-fully described ihe volcano f terit died out baa had an uneventful and unrecorded history Popular Science Sci-ence Monthly |