Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: April 30, 2025
Later volcanic work built up a number of small cones within the crater, and still later a new cone, called Rakata, rose on the edge of the old one to a height of 2,623 feet. The first known event in the history of the island volcano was an eruption in the year 1680. After that it lay in repose, forming a group of islands, one much larger than the others.
"We have passed right through the peak of Rakata, and reached its northern side, which commands, as you see, a view of all the northern part of the island. I come here often in the night to study the face of the heavens, the moon, and stars, and meditate on their mysterious Maker, whose ways are indeed wonderful and past finding out; but all which must, in the nature of things, be right."
Although at a distance, as we have said, of four miles, the glare of its fires on the three figures perched near the top of Rakata was very intense, while explosion after explosion sent molten lava and red-hot rocks, pumice, and dust, high into the thickening air clouds of smoke and steam being vomited forth at the same time.
This was owing to the protection afforded to it by the cone of Rakata, and the almost overhanging nature of some of the cliffs on that side of the mountain; still the track was bad enough, and in places so rugged, that Winnie, vigorous and agile though she was, found it both difficult and fatiguing to advance.
There were three prominent peaks on it, he said, named respectively, Perboewatan, about 400 feet high, at the northern end of the island; Danan, near the centre, 1500 feet; and Rakata, at the southern end, over 2600 feet. It was high up on the sides of the last cone that the residence of the hermit was situated. "And you won't tell me your master's name?" said Nigel. Moses shook his woolly head.
Slight at first, it soon poured down in such quantities that in ten minutes it lay six inches thick on the deck, and the crew had to set to work with shovels to heave it overboard. At this time there was seen a continual roll of balls of white fire down the sides of the peak of Rakata, caused, doubtless, by the ejection of white-hot fragments of lava.
He also mentions the crackling noise, probably due to the impact of fragments in the atmosphere, which were noticed by the hermit and Nigel while standing stunned and almost stupefied on the giddy ledge of Rakata that same Sunday.
"D'you think our old harbour will be available, Moses?" asked Van der Kemp as they came close to the first headland. "Pr'aps. Bes' go an' see," was the negro's practical reply. "Evidently Rakata is not yet active," said Nigel, looking up at the grey dust-covered crags as the canoe glided swiftly through the dark water. "That is more than can be said for the other craters," returned the hermit.
He will guide us back to the cave, since Van der Kemp seems to have left us." "Who's Van der Kemp?" asked the captain. "The hermit of Rakata, father that's his name. His father was a Dutchman and his mother an English or Irish woman I forget which.
It was found that Krakatoa and all the adjoining islands were covered with a fine white dust, like snow, and that the trees on the northern part of the former island and Varlaten had been to a great extent deprived of their leaves and branches by falling pumice, while those on Lang Island and Polish Hat, as well as those on the Peak of Rakata, had to a great extent escaped no doubt owing to the prevailing direction of the wind.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking