BATAVIA AFTER THE KRAKA TOA VOLCANIC ERUPTION.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1516, 22 January 1886, Page 4

BATAVIA AFTER THE KRAKA TOA VOLCANIC ERUPTION.

The well-male road from Bstavia to Merak —on which we bad thus far travelled —now came to an abrupt ending. Its metalled track had suddenly disappeared, partly washed away at :irst, and a little farther on completely swept away. A ruined bridge was all that remained to show where once the road had been. Our kahar could now proceed no farther, and the rest of our exploration had to be performed on foot We were still several miles from the coast, bu+ all the land between us was perfectly bare of timber. A few weeks before, the whole of the country we were gazing on was one dense forest of cocoaout palms, and beneath the shelter of troptical vegetation scores of native ham. pongt nestled, inhabited by many thousands of busy people. And now this immense district —15 miles long and four or five in width—was so completely ruined by the inundation mto be nothing more or less than a huge cemetery. What a change bad come over that thriving district on the western shore of Java in so short a period! The palm trees were all thrown down—without a single exception torn up by the roots, lying in endleas confusion one above another. The native houses —made of their free materials of bamboo and leaves —were now on the ground, just as the receding waters had left them. Beneahl the fallen debris lay all kinds of smashed furniture, broken cooking utensils, doors wrenched from their hinges, and every article of native costume in one indescribable mass. — Leisure Hour.