lapsing since the threefold
ravages of fire, flood, and earthquake, caused by Krakatau, convulsed
the East with terror, the dread mountain has become wreathed with
flower and fruit, for orchards and gardens, tended by the Malays from
the surrounding islands, now flourish at the foot of the quiescent
peak. Javanese colonists, who experienced the terrors of the
overwhelming catastrophe, assert that no similes drawn from the most
appalling thunderstorm, or from the roar of the heaviest artillery,
could convey an adequate idea of the stupendous detonation which seemed
to shatter earth and sky, as the pent-up fires burst forth in the final
explosion, which tore the mountain asunder and poured forth the
devastating forces of the abysmal depths over land and sea. Crimson
lava-flood and burning hail, blackened heaven and rocking earth,
roaring sea and clamouring volcano, represented an Apocalyptic vision
of Divine wrath, but probably no survivor remained to record the actual
sight of the unprecedented phenomenon, transcending every terrestrial
convulsion recorded in the chronicles of scientists. Only a slender
feather of grey steam now issues from the lofty crater. Leaves and
grasses flutter in the soft breeze, and a shower of white petals drifts
upon the iron boulders, once incandescent amid the red torrents of
rushing fire. A sheer precipice remained as the severed half of the
shattered cone, when the rent cliffs shivered into fragments, and
toppled over into the sea. Nature again breathes "peace and safety," as
she did before "the sudden destruction" gave the lie to her mocking
voice, and as the ruined pyramid of terrible Krakatau sinks below the
horizon, and the good ship speeds on her way, a weight of awe seems
lifted from the mind, oppressed by imagination and association with the
ghastly tragedy of those untameable forces which defy calculation or
comprehension.

History has often proved the truth of the assertion that Time turns
memories into dreams, but in the presence of Krakatau's smoking crater,
the memories looming over the haunted volcano translate themselves into
a nightmare of horror, for the shadows of doom still cling to the
monumental pyramid, a menacing witness to the existence of those occult
laws which baffle human investigation with their insoluble problems,
and compel the defeated scientist to acknowledge himself a mere
chronicler of inexplicable mysteries. The extent of the volcanic zone
encircling the