cession of the sea to such an extent
that small boats at their anchorage were left aground--a thing that had
never been seen before. The period of recession was only one-and-a-half
minutes; then the water paused, as it were, for a brief space, and,
beginning to rise, reached the level of the highest high-water mark in
less than two minutes, thus marking a difference of 8 feet 10 inches
instead of the ordinary 2 feet.

At one place there was an ebb and flood tide, of unusual extent, within
half-an-hour. At another, a belt of land, including a burying-ground,
was washed away, so that, according to the observer, "it appeared as if
the dead had sought shelter with the living in a neighbouring cocoa-nut
garden!" Elsewhere the tides were seen to advance and recede ten or
twelve times--in one case even twenty times--on the 27th. At
Trincomalee the sea receded three times and returned with singular
force, at one period leaving part of the shore suddenly bare, with fish
struggling in the mud. The utilitarian tendency of mankind was at once
made manifest by some fishermen who, seizing the opportunity, dashed
into the struggling mass and began to reap the accidental harvest,
when--alas for the poor fishermen!--the sea rushed in again and drove
them all away.

In the Mauritius, however, the fishers were more fortunate, for when
their beach was exposed in a similar manner, they succeeded in capturing
a good many fish before the water returned.

Even sharks were disturbed in their sinister and slimy habits of life by
this outburst of Krakatoa--and no wonder, when it is recorded that in
some places "the sea looked like water boiling heavily in a pot," and
that "the boats which were afloat were swinging in all directions." At
one place several of these monsters were flung out of their native home
into pools, where they were left struggling till their enemy man
terminated their career.

Everywhere those great waves produced phenomena which were so striking
as to attract the attention of all classes of people, to ensure record
in most parts of the world, and to call for the earnest investigation of
the scientific men of many lands--and the conclusion to which such men
have almost universally come is, that the strange vagaries of the sea
all over the earth, the mysterious sounds heard in so many widely
distant places, and the wonderful effects in the skies of every quarter
of the globe, were all due to the eruption of the Krakat