PREFACE.
The extremely violent nature of the volcanic eruption
in Krakatoa in
1883, the peculiar beauty of those parts of the eastern
seas where the
event occurred, the wide-spread influences of the
accompanying
phenomena, and the tremendous devastation which resulted,
have all
inspired me with a desire to bring the matter, in
the garb of a tale,
before that portion of the juvenile world which accords
me a hearing.
For most of the facts connected with the eruption
which have been
imported into my story, I have to acknowledge myself
indebted to the
recently published important and exhaustive “Report”
of the Krakatoa
Committee, appointed by the Royal Society to make
a thorough
investigation of the whole matter in all its phases.
I have also to acknowledge having obtained much interesting
and useful
information from the following among other works:—The
Malay
Archipelago, by A.R. Wallace; A Naturalist’s
Wanderings in the Eastern
Archipelago, by H.O. Forbes; and Darwin’s
Journal of Researches round
the world in H.M.S. “Beagle.”
R.M. BALLANTYNE.
HARROW-ON-THE HILL, 1889.
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