e formerly fertile and densely populated islands of Sibuku and
Sibesi were entirely covered by a deposit of dry mud several yards
thick, and furrowed by deep crevasses. Of the inhabitants all perished
to a man. Three islands, Steers, Calmeyer, and the islet east of
Verlaten, completely disappeared and were covered by twelve or
fourteen feet of water. Verlaten, formerly one mass of verdure, was
uniformly covered with a layer of ashes about one hundred feet thick.

A few days after this eruption some remarkable sky effects were
observed in different parts of the world. Many of these effects were
of extraordinary beauty. Accordingly scientific inquiry was made, and
in due time there was collected and tabulated a list of places from
whence these effects were seen, together with the dates of such
occurrences. Eventually it was concluded that such optical phenomena
had a common cause, and that it must be the dust of ultra-microscopic
fineness at an enormous altitude. All the facts indicated that such a
cloud started from the Sunda straits, and that the prodigious force of
the Krakatoa eruption could at that time alone account for the
presence of impalpable matter at such a height in the atmosphere.

This cloud traveled at about double the speed of an express train, by
way of the tropics of Cancer and of Capricorn. Carried by
westerly-going winds, in three days it had crossed the Indian Ocean
and was rapidly moving over Central Africa; two days later it was
flying over the Atlantic; then, for two more days over Brazil, and
then across the Pacific toward its birth-place. But the wind still
carried this haze of fine particles onward, and again it went around
the world within a fortnight. In November, the dust area had expanded
so as to include North America and Europe.

Here are a few facts culled from the report of the Royal Society of
London. On the 28th, at Seychelles, the sun was seen as through a fog
at sunset, and there was a lurid glare all over the sky. At the island
of Rodriguez, on that day, "a strange, red, threatening sky was seen
at sunset." At Mauritius (28th), there is the record "Crimson dawn,
sun red after rising, gorgeous sunset, first of the afterglows; sky
and clouds yellow and red up to the zenith." 28th and 29th,
Natal--"most vivid sunsets, also August 31st and September 5th, sky
vivid red, fading into green and purple." On the last days of August
and September 1st, the sun, as seen from South America, ap