the Icelandic people. It is, in fact, to be remembered as one of the
three or four most calamitous eruptions of which we have any account,
and, from the point of view of lava flow, the greatest in history.

Just a hundred years after the great Skaptar eruption, which darkened
the skies of Europe, the island of Krakatoa, an isle formed by a small
volcano in the straits of Java, was the seat of a vapour explosion
which from its intensity is not only unparalleled, but almost
unapproached in all accounts of such disturbances. Krakatoa had long
been recognised as a volcanic isle; it is doubtful, however, if it had
ever been seen in eruption during the three centuries or more since
European ships began to sail by it until the month of May of the year
above mentioned. Then an outbreak of what may be called ordinary
violence took place, which after a few days so far ceased that
observers landed and took account of the changes which the convulsion
had brought about. For about three months there were no further signs
of activity, but on the 29th of August a succession of vast explosions
took place, which blew away a great part of the island, forming in its
place a submarine crater two or three miles in diameter, creating
world-wide disturbances of sea and air. The sounds of the outbreak
were heard at a distance of sixteen hundred miles away. The waves of
the air attendant on the explosion ran round the earth at least once,
as was distinctly indicated by the self-recording barometers; it is
possible, indeed, that, crossing each other in their east and west
courses, these atmospheric tides twice girdled the sphere. In effect,
the air over the crater was heaved up to the height of some tens of
thousands of feet, and thence rolled off in great circular waves, such
as may be observed in a pan of milk when a sharp blow pushes the
bottom upward.