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Rh were observed; while in the mountains farther to the southwest they were even more pronounced, and the Karang, a mountain situated about west from Batavia, it was thought must be the seat of disturbance. By this time the general opinion had decidedly ascribed to the west or northwest the direction whence the movements were proceeding. Krakatau itself was even named; but some of the Sumatran mountains were considered more likely to be the delinquents. Batavia being connected with that island by a telegraph line passing along the north coast of Java to Anjer, across the Straits of Sunda to Telok-betong, thence northward to Palembang on the east, and to Padang on the west coast, intelligence from all parts soon began to come in; but none of any eruption anywhere, beyond the notice of the fall of ashes mentioned above. Anjer telegraphed, "Nothing of the nature of an earthquake known or felt here." This was dated the 21st; a message in much the same terms had been received on the previous day, as well as the report of one of the Government officials to the following effect: "On Sunday morning, the 20th, I landed at Anjer, and there staid till one o'clock in the afternoon; at half-past three I reached Serang, and halted an hour. Neither I nor my coachman, either at Anjer or at Serang, or on my whole journey to Tangerang (near Batavia), felt or heard any earthquake or disturbance, or anything at all remarkable."

Anjer lies on the narrowest part of the Sunda Strait, twenty-seven miles from Krakatau, which formed a prominent object in one's seaward view from the veranda of its quiet little hotel on the sea-margin. This hotel was kept by one of Lloyd's agents, Mr. Schuit (whose family perished in the subsequent disaster), who had in his veranda a powerful telescope for reading the signals of ships for report to Batavia, and by whom consequently any occurrence in the strait could scarcely fail to be observed. Thus during the period of greatest disturbance in Batavia and Buitenzorg, when men there were referring the origin to Krakatau, eighty miles away, at Anjer, only twenty-seven miles distant from it, nothing was felt or heard. The same report was made from Merak, likewise situated on the straits, thirty-five miles from and presenting a clear outlook to the volcano. The winds prevalent in this region during the month of May are from the east, and would tend to drive any smoke and ashes toward the Indian Ocean, which might explain their not being detected from Anjer; but the direction of the wind fails to account for the entire absence in that and the surrounding villages of the phenomena which were most conspicuous in Batavia.

Not till the evening of the 21st was smoke observed to be issuing from Krakatau; on the 22d the volcanic vent there seems to have been fully established, and the vibrations and other phenomena experienced in Batavia quickly subsided. Now, in a letter to "Nature," Mr. H. O. Forbes has recorded the passage, during the 11th and 12th