VOLCANOES OF JAVA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17254, 2 September 1919, Page 9

VOLCANOES OF JAVA.

A CONTINUOUS CHAIN.

THE RECENT ERUPTION.

DENSELY POPULATED COUNTRY. The recent eruption of the volcano of Klut, on the Island of Java, and its destruction' of many lives draws attention once more to this section ai the globe, where the natural forces of the earth's interior still show signs of youth. Nowhere on the earth is there a region of

equal size which has suffered fro much from /olcanic eruptions. There are no volcanoes on either Borneo or New Guinea, but the line of the arins and quiescent peaks of to-day stretches through Sumatra and Java, then through the smaller islands to the east of Java, up through Celebes and the Philippines, and into Japan. A similar curve of volcanic centres can be traced down the opposite border of the Pacific, beginning with Alaska, then through the Western United States, Mexico, Central America, and along the Andes, in South America. Out in the Pacific, in the centre of this gigantic horseshoe of volcanoes, are scattered : other groups, notably that in the Hawaiian Islands. Through. Java itself the chain of these volcanic mountains runs the 660 miles of its length. Over fifty cf these peaks range from 2000 or 3000 feet to over 12,000 in height, while half of them are active or semi-active at tha present time. Geologists, however, usually attribute activity to only fourteen of' them. This chain of mountain*, many of them capped with great clouds of vapour or illuminated with I columns of fire, lends a sombre aspect to the rare tropical beauty of Javanese J scenery. -.

Living Up to its Name. The Klut (or Kloet, Kalut, Keloet, according to one's system oL orthography) caii hardly be classed among the more majestic mountains of the Javanese range, since its,height is only about 5500 feet. However, it lives up to its name, which means the "broom," as its terrible eruptions have so often swept the region about it.. The natives of Kediri, the regency in south-eastern Java where the Klut is located, and: in fact the Javanese throughout' the- eastern end of the island, look Upon the mountain with a fear out of all proportion to. its size. The Klut has tnree craters, although but one is active. About 3800 1 feet up the . mountain is a lake of hot .water, at about 85 degrees F., fully half a mile in. diameter. Close by the Klut are other active volcanoes, ' Kawi. and Ardjuno, the latter towering to a height of over 10,000 feet. Just east of these are the Bromo, Semeru (the highest .mountain in Java, 12,300 feet),' Lamongan, and Raung, causing this I region of Eastern Java to be one of the i greatest volcanic centres on the earth. The. Javanese have a legend that all the active volcanoes of the island are , divided into groups of three, which by some secret power work in shifts two resting -while the other, whose, turn it is, rumbles and roars, and casts forth its. stones and anhes, its smoke andfire. . The Bromo and Semeru are two of such, a group. The former is perhaps the most interesting for the tourist to visit, as its , activities are comparatively mild and its unique situation is superb in' ite awe-inspiring grandeur. The Bromo iK bat 700 feet in height and is one of a 'group of four' cones, of which it alone gives' any evidence of subterranean connections. These four cones, however, have risen -in some recent geologic period out. of the .floor of a far larger crater, now extinct.'.' This crater floor, or San Sea, as it is called, *is three and a-half ' miles in diameter, is '6800 _feet above sea level, and has a rim surrounding it that averages a- thousand, feet ,in height. Such a tre- ' mendous crater, geologists tell us, could j have • been ' caused only by an upheaval *_t I nature's, forces, -far. back in the dim ag"* l of'the world, such as it is impossible for as-.to > conceive. \- Then it was that the whole .top of this huge mountain was rent asunder. V...V.' '. '.- Hie Loss of Life. The loss "of life from many of the volcanic : 'disty«ts«Biees in Java as well as .the renorfr ' itas resulting from the recent eruption'*, ae Klut, place them among the 'more' serious of the world's disasters. Irt> ar 'country, however, that is at the same time so , thickly populated and so covered with.-death-dealing mountains,' the wbnder ~ip that far great numbers of people are. not,; destroyed. Out of 48.000.000 people dwelling in the Malay Archipelago, 36jQ00,.000 live in Java alone, making it th.e' most densely populated country on the I globe,: :. The.JaTanese are an agricultural peopls, both love* and "tillers of the soil. There are but '''. half-a-dozen cities in this vast population which- have over 50,000 inhabitants, and the largest of all, Surabaya, has not more than 200,000. The peopl« live in villages of from &0 to 500, with an -occasional larger town, so that .there are : practically no congested population centres clustered at the bases, of the mountains like Naples at Vesuvius or St. Pierre at Mont Pelee..