e islands of Java and
Sumatra, forms one of the main gateways used by the vast number of ships
that navigate the China Sea. All vessels bound thither from the western
hemisphere pass either to the north or south of Sumatra, entering the
Eastern Archipelago through the Straits of Singapore or else by the
Straits of Sunda. Steam-vessels bound through the Suez Canal and Indian
Ocean use the former route, and those rounding the Cape of Good Hope the
latter. The strait is about seventy miles long, sixty miles broad at
the south-west end, narrowing to thirteen miles at the north-east; and
it was here that the terrible earthquake occurred in the summer of 1883,
by which so many thousands of lives were sacrificed in a moment, through
the submerging of some of the adjacent islands in the sea, a catastrophe
only second in the annals of history to the earthquake at Lisbon in the
last century.

Half-way through the strait, equidistant from the two shores, was a
group of three islands, the largest of which was Krakatoa, four and a
half miles long and three miles broad, its volcanic summit reaching to a
height of 2623 feet above the sea-level, about ten times higher than the
surrounding sea was deep. Between it and Java, although the floor of
the strait was uneven, the channel was clear of dangers; on the Sumatra
side were several islands and rocks, the two largest of which, Bezee and
Sebooko, rose respectively 2825 feet and 1416 feet above the sea. The
tremendous volcanic eruption, with the accompanying earthquake and
inundation of the coasts which lately happened here--on the 26th August,
1883--has now wrought a fearful change here. According to all accounts,
it appears that the chain of islets on the Sumatra side of the straits
has been added to by at least sixteen volcanic craters rising within the
eight miles of water that formerly separated them from Krakatoa. With
so enormous an upheaval it would not be unnatural to expect the
surrounding floor to be depressed; but when it is learned that the whole
island of Krakatoa, containing about 8000 million cubic yards of
material, has fallen in, and the greater part of it disappeared below
the sea, the magnitude of the convulsion becomes more apparent, and it
is the easier to realise the formation of the destructive volcanic wave
that was thrown on the neighbouring shores. It is almost inconceivable
that this island, with a mountain summit which rose nearly 2700 feet
above the