s degrees of vertical
oscillation; but according to the conclusions of Captain Wharton,
founded on numerous data, the greatest wave seems to have originated at
Krakatoa about 10 a.m. on the 27th of August, rising on the coasts of
the Straits of Sunda to a height of fifty feet above the ordinary
sea-level. This wave appears to have been observed over at least half
the globe. It travelled westwards to the coast of Hindostan and Southern
Arabia, ultimately reaching the coasts of France and England. Eastwards
it struck the coast of Australia, New Zealand, the Sandwich Islands,
Alaska, and the western coast of North America; so that it was only the
continent of North and South America which formed a barrier (and that
not absolute) to the circulation of this oceanic wave all over the
globe. The destruction to life and property caused by this wave along
the coasts of Sunda was very great. Combined with the earthquake shocks
(which, however, were not very severe), the tremendous storm of wind,
the fall of ashes and cinders, and the changes in the sea-bed, it
produced in the Straits of Sunda for some time after the eruption a
disastrous transformation. Lighthouses had been swept away; all the old
familiar landmarks on the shore were obscured by a vast deposit of
volcanic dust; the sea itself was encumbered with enormous quantities of
floating pumice, in many places of such thickness that no vessel could
force its way through them; and for months after the eruption one of the
principal channels was greatly obstructed by two islands which had
arisen in its midst. The Sebesi channel was completely blocked by banks
composed of volcanic materials, and two portions of these banks rose
above the sea as islands, which received the name of "Steers Island" and
"Calmeyer Island"; but these, by the action of the waves, have since
been completely swept away, and the materials strewn over the bed of the
sea.[9]

(_g._) _Atmospheric Effects._--But the face of nature, even in her most
terrific and repulsive aspect, is seldom altogether unrelieved by some
traces of beauty. In contrast to the fearful and disastrous phenomena
just described, is to be placed the splendour of the heavens, witnessed
all over the central regions of the globe throughout a period of several
months after the eruption of 1883, which has been ably treated by the
Hon. Rollo Russell and Mr. C. D. Archibald, in the Royal Society's
Report.

When the particles of lava and ash