bout six hundred feet. Explosions occurred at intervals of from five
to ten minutes, each of these outbursts uncovering the liquid lava in
the vent, the glow of which lighted up the overhanging steam-cloud for
a few seconds.

Shortly after this visit the activity diminished. But on June 19th it
was noticed at Anjer that the height of the dust and vapor-column, and
likewise the explosions were again increasing. On the 24th a second
column was seen rising. At length, Captain Ferzenaar, chief of the
Topographical Survey of Bantam, visited Krakatoa island on August
11th. He found its forests destroyed, and the mantle of dust near the
shores was twenty inches thick. Three large vapor-columns were noted,
one marking the position of the crater of Perborwatan, while the other
two were in the center of the island, and of the latter, one was
probably Danan. There were also no less than eleven other eruptive
foci, from which issued smaller steam-columns and dust. This was the
last report prior to the great paroxysm.

During the next two or three weeks there was a decline in the energy
of the volcano, but on the afternoon of Sunday, August 26th, and all
through the following night, it was evident that the period of
moderate eruptive action had passed, and that Krakatoa had now
entered upon the paroxysmal stage. From sunset on Sunday till midnight
the tremendous detonations followed each other so quickly that a
continuous roar may be said to have issued from the island. The full
terrors of the eruption were now approaching. The distance of
ninety-six miles from Krakatoa was not sufficient to permit sleep to
the inhabitants of Batavia. All night volcanic thunders sounded like
the discharges of artillery at their very doors. On the next morning
there were four mighty explosions. The third was of appalling
violence, and it gave rise to the most far-reaching effects. The
entire series of grand phenomena at that spot extended over a little
more than thirty-six hours.

Captain Thompson, of the Media, then seventy-six miles northeast of
Krakatoa, saw a black mass like smoke rising into the clouds to an
altitude estimated at not less than seventeen miles. The eruption was
also viewed by Captain Wooldridge at a distance of forty miles. He
speaks of the vapory mass looking like "an immense wall, with bursts
of forked lightning, at times like large serpents rushing through the
air." After sunset this dark wall resembled "a blood-red curtain