The phase of greatest violence set in on Sunday, August 26th. Soon after
midday sailors on passing ships saw that the island had vanished behind
a dense cloud of black vapor, the height of which was estimated at not
less than seventeen miles. At intervals frightful detonations resounded,
and after a time a rain of pumice began to fall at places ten miles
distant. For miles round fierce flashes of lightning rent the vapor,
and at a distance of fully forty miles ghostly corposants gleamed on the
rigging of a vessel.
These phenomena grew more and more alarming until August 27th, when four
explosions of fearful intensity shook earth and sea and air, the third
being "far the most violent and productive of the most widespread
results." It was, in fact, perhaps the most tremendous volcanic
outburst, in its intensity, known in human history. It seemed to
overcome the obstruction to the energy of the internal forces, for the
eruption now declined, and in a day or two practically died away, though
one or two comparatively insignificant outbursts took place later.
FAR-REACHING DESTRUCTION
The eruption spread ruin and death over many surrounding leagues. At
Krakotoa itself, when men once more reached its shores, everything was
found to be changed. About two-thirds of the main island were blown
completely away. The marginal cone was cut nearly in half vertically,
the new cliff falling precipitously toward the centre of the crater.
Where land had been before now sea existed, in some places more than
one hundred feet deep.
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