The rapidity with which the effects of the Krakatoa eruption made themselves evident in all parts of the earth is perhaps the most remarkable outcome of this extraordinary event.  The floating pumice reached the harbor of St. Paul on the 22nd of March, 1884, after having made a voyage of some two hundred and sixty days at a rate of six-tenths of a mile an hour.  Immense quantities of pumice of a similar description, and believed to have been derived from the same source, reached Tamatave in Madagascar five months later, and no doubt much of it long continued to float round the world.

SERIES OF ATMOSPHERIC WAVES

Another result of the eruption was the series of atmospheric waves, caused by the disturbance in the atmosphere, which affected the barometer over the entire world.  The velocity with which these waves traveled has been variously estimated at from 912.09 feet to 1066.29 feet per second.  This speed is, of course, very much inferior to that at which sound travels through the air.  Yet, in three distinct cases, the noise of the Krakatoa explosions was plainly heard at a distance of at least 2,200 miles, and in one instance—­that recorded from Rodriguez—­of nearly 3,000.  The sound travelled to Ceylon, Burmah, Manila, New Guinea and Western Australia, places, however, within a radius of about 2,000 miles; out Diego Garcia lies outside that area, and Rodriguez a thousand miles beyond it.  Six days subsequent to the explosion, after the atmospheric waves had traveled four times round the globe, the barometer was still affected by them.

Another result, similar in kind, was the extraordinary dissemination of the great ocean wave, which in a like manner seems to have encircled the earth, since high waves, without evident cause, appeared not only in the Pacific, but at many places on the Atlantic coast within a few days after the event.  They were observed alike in England and at New York.  The writer happened to be at Atlantic City, on the New Jersey coast, at this time.  It was a period of calm, the winds being at rest, but, unheralded, there came in an ocean wave of such height as to sweep away the ocean-front boardwalk and do much other damage.  He ascribed this strange wave at the time to the Krakatoa explosion, and is of the same opinion still.

In addition to the account given of this extraordinary volcanic event, it seems desirable to give Sir Robert S. Ball’s description of it in his recent work, “The Earth’s Beginnings.”  While repeating to some extent what we have already said, it is worthy, from its freshness of description and general readability, of a place here.

SIR ROBERT S. BALL’S DESCRIPTION