were so loud as to be distinctly heard in Hindostan, 1,800 miles away, and at Batavia the sound was like the constant roar of cannon in a field of battle.  Finally the whole island was blown to pieces, and now came the most awful contest of nature—­a battle of death between Neptune and Vulcan; the sea poured down into the chasm millions of tons, only to be at first converted into vapor by the millions of tons of seething white hot lava beneath.  Over the shores 30 miles away, waves over 100 ft. high rolled with such a fury that everything, even to a part of the bedrock, was swept away.  Blocks of stone, of 50 tons weight were carried two miles inland.  On the Sumatra side of the straits a large vessel was carried three miles inland.  The wave, of course growing less in intensity, traveled across the whole Indian Ocean, 5,000 miles, to the Cape of Good Hope and around it into the Atlantic.  The waves in the atmosphere traveled around the globe three times at the rate of 700 miles per hour.  The dust from the volcano was carried up into the atmosphere fully twenty miles and the finest of it was distributed through the whole body of air.  The reader doubtless remembers the beautiful reddish or purple glow at sunrise and sunset for fully six months after August, 1883—­that glow was caused by volcanic dust in the atmosphere interfering with the passage of the sun’s rays of the upper part of the solar spectrum, more manifest at sun rising and setting than at other times during the day, because at these periods the sun’s rays have to travel obliquely through the atmosphere, and consequently penetrating a very deep layer, were deprived of all their colors except the red.

The loss of life was appalling.  The last sight on earth to 35,000 people was that of the awful eruption.  Engulfed in the ocean or covered with heaps of ashes, a few hours after the eruption commenced the awful work was done, and that vast multitude had vanished from off the face of the earth.  The fact that in the neighborhood of the mountain there was a sparse population accounts for there not being even a far greater loss of life.

Notwithstanding the awfulness of volcanic and earthquake phenomena, there is some silver lining to the dark clouds.  They prove that the earth is yet a living planet.  Centuries must pass away before it will become like the moon—­a dead planet—­without water, air or life.  Our satellite is a prophecy indeed of what the earth must eventually become when all its life forces, its internal energies, are dissipated into space.—­Granville F. Foster, Min.  Sci.  Press.

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PENTAPTERYGIUM SERPENS.