GREAT KRAKATAO

Evening Star, Issue 20150, 15 April 1929, Page 2

GREAT KRAKATAO

JAVA'S ACTIVE VOLCANO RED LAVA POURS DOWN Jn the meteorological station on the island of Java there is general alarm. “ Krakatao active ” —the cable mesaages repeat. The seismographs write uninterruptedly their fearful story; Four thousand eruptions in twentyfour hours! A wild light hangs over the sea, seems to rise from the depths. In splits the darkness of night and lights up like a giant reflector from the bottom of the sen the huge clouds of vapour which look like flaming helmets. The earth is speaking, and when it speaks man knows only fear (writes Franz F. Oberhanser in the New York ‘Times’). The inhabitants are flying for the interior of the island, leaving behind the fishing villages on the coast.' The wild animals in the forests of Bantam, that southern province of Java in which we saw great, beautiful tigers, and wonderful elephants, are. moving herds toward the interior. The earth trembles under them. Thousands of monkeys are chattering before a dread that rises from the very earth. Everything is now in motion, seeking safety among the other mountains or in the valleys which lie between the volcanoes! There are more than sixty fire-spitting craters on the' islands, extending like a chain from Sumatra under Sumla Strait across the island of Java. At Tandjoek Priok we took a fast motor boat in order to pay a visit to Krakatao, ft is a dangerous trip, but what would the world he without adventure? Our Javanese guide, a crinkly-headed little man, hare-footed, in bright blue striped linen trousers, was at the wheel. These are silent, dependable people—the Javanese. Their skin is stretched tight over their lions, their eyes arc large and keen. IVe ran quickly along that route the tourists are so fond of—through Sumla Strait and along the coast of Java. One should travel this route in order to see the wonderful play, of lights upon the sea find Jiuge waves breaking on the torn wafts of rock. . The waves dash up- many metres high hang on the rocks magic silver crowns of foam as the sun sinks. We feel already the gentle roll from the sen volcano. Wo see the fishermen in their dark boats turning homeward toward Paloc Panalen. They,number not more than fifty persons who live on one of this hundred of little volcanic islands. —VOLCANOES FROM THE SEA. An hour more and the rolling under ns becomes stronger, And now, as if through a half-opened curtain. w r e can sec over there the volcanoes rising out of the sea, Paolo Krakatao, as tlic Javanese call it, gleams before ns in a light red mantle—the largest in the chain of vol-

canoes and the most important among the sixty-odd of the Dutch Fast Indies.

■Nowhere have. I seen finer volcanoes than here on Java. They stand there with thei'- red lava between their dark green forests and at the side of the blue- sea The song of birds brings a blessed scene of peace, and the eternal blooms of flic tropical Honors make a paradise there, hut the. devil (as always) tore open a breach and the lava flowed over the earth!

We approach nearer Krakatau. 'I he rumbling under is now very strong. 'The glow of the lire hangs over ns like a signal of the anger of heaven. The sea is agitated as if in a storm. The crater of Krakatao thunders and sends out continuously its rain of small rock. From more than 3,000 ft above ns the volcano showers millions of little stones into the air. Rut what do. numbers mean in the immensity of tiie ocean? It seems as if a small boy had cast a handful of pebbles into the water. VAPOUR CLOUDS. Higher still mount the helmet vapour clouds; from the crater a ruby tire lights up the sky. Nearer our pilot refuses to take us. For him volcanoes are evil spirits, and ho sees no use in taking risks. So nothing is lelt lor ns hut to take a photograph through the telescope while the meteorologists make their reckoning? and, watch in hand, lollow the explosions. Around us a rain of little pumice stones falls without ceasing. The sea is full of these stones, which, light and the colour of dirty snowflakes, float over Sumla Strait. Suddenly, in the midst of a mighty rumbling, we see an island emerging from the sea. Tt looks like the back of a hippopotamus rising out of the water, but it is indescribable and unforgettable when one sees this drama for the first time. Earth is born, an island is born, ami it stays there where it rose; it is put down on the maps and belongs to the group the Hollanders have described as islands ol solitude. Deep under the play of the sea these volcanoes are hound together by a mountain chain. They come hither from Sumatra; they stand in the Sunda sen with only, their heads above water, and in Java rise again to normal mountains.

The thundering becomes louder, the rain of stones is no heavy . that klw Malay must turn the boat around; and slowly we start back. The stones have grazed our hands and faces; they are warm and ,so sharp that they cut the skin, leaving little wounds as they fall from their lofty inferno.

Will an explosion in the future, as in past centuries, some day destroy half of Java and Sumatra? Day. and night the people in the meteorological station keep watch, mid every half-hour a cable message is sent off. Over there on the coast of Bantam, at the base of Krakatao. a patrol is stationed which risks its life at its work.

But now we arc back in Tandjoek Priok, and we take the ti'ain to Buiteny.org. Wo have exchanged tl\c dangers of the volcano for the paradise of a tropical garden..