n Sumatra--1073 miles distant--they supposed that a fort was being
attacked and the troops were turned out under arms. At Singapore--522
miles off--they fancied that the detonations came from a vessel in
distress and two steamers were despatched to search for it. And here
the effect on the telephone, extending to Ishore, was remarkable. On
raising the tubes a perfect roar as of a waterfall was heard. By
shouting at the top of his voice, the clerk at one end could make the
clerk at the other end hear, but he could not render a word
intelligible. At Perak--770 miles off--the sounds were thought to be
distant salvos of artillery, and Commander the Honourable F Vereker,
R.N., of H.M.S. _Magpie_, when 1227 miles distant, (in latitude 5
degrees 52 minutes North, longitude 118 degrees 22 minutes East), states
that the detonations of Krakatoa were distinctly heard by those on board
his ship, and by the inhabitants of the coast as far as Banguey Island,
on August 27th. He adds that they resembled distant heavy cannonading.
In a letter from Saint Lucia Bay--1116 miles distant--it was stated that
the eruption was plainly heard all over Borneo. A government steamer
was sent out from the Island of Timor--1351 miles off--to ascertain the
cause of the disturbance! In South Australia also, at places 2250 miles
away, explosions were heard on the 26th and 27th which "awakened"
people, and were thought worthy of being recorded and reported. From
Tavoy, in Burmah--1478 miles away--the report came--"All day on August
27th unusual sounds were heard, resembling the boom of guns. Thinking
there might be a wreck or a ship in distress, the Tavoy Superintendent
sent out the police launch, but they `could see nothing.'" And so on,
far and near, similar records were made, the most distant spot where the
sounds were reported to have been heard being Rodriguez, in the Pacific,
nearly 3000 miles distant!

One peculiar feature of the records is that some ships in the immediate
neighbourhood of Krakatoa did not experience the shock in proportionate
severity. Probably this was owing to their being so near that a great
part of the concussion and sound flew over them--somewhat in the same
way that the pieces of a bomb-shell fly over men who, being too near to
escape by running, escape by flinging themselves flat on the ground.

Each air-wave which conveyed these sounds, commencing at Krakatoa as a
centre, spread out in an ever-increasing circle