3-074-518 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Telok Betong, Sumatra, one of the places destroyed, 1883. The '...terrible volcanic eruption in the Straits of Sunda, which crumbled to pieces the Island of Krakatoa, and its lofty cone, and claimed its victims by tens of thousands, stands out conspicuously among the tragical events of 1883. Although some philosophers associate our recent brilliant sunsets with the atmospheric effects of the tremendous convulsion in Eastern Asia, we are as little consoled by such inductions for the wide spread devastation caused by it as we are tranquillised by the assurance that the preternatural activity of subterranean forces is a proof that our earth is not likely soon to become a " dead planet".' From "Illustrated London News", 1883.