A great cloud was seen to rise above the island, and spreading out obscured the sun, while ash fell from the air. Upon the neighboring land the ground was shaken, while upon the low coasts, a great water wave rushed, destroying thousands of lives. Krakatoa, which had not been in eruption in this century, had again broken forth, with the most terrific explosion that man had recorded. Ash rose miles in the air, and spreading out, fell on the surrounding land and water, and for a while it was so thick upon the surface of the sea, in the Straits of Sunda, that the progress of vessels was impeded. So high did it rise that the light ash, floating about by the upper winds, staid suspended in the air for months, some of it falling in America and Europe. A great water wave, generated by the explosion, crossed the Pacific to the California coast, and it was observed on the shores of Africa and Australia. When the eruption had ceased it was found that Krakatoa had been split into two parts, one of which had disappeared into the air, leaving ocean water where there had been dry land. The part of the island that remained was covered with a deep coating of ash, and not a living thing was left, neither plant nor animal. [28] Speaking of the same event W. J. McGee, vice-president of the National Geographical Society, and ethnologist in charge of the Bureau of American Ethnology, says: This stupendous outburst cast up a cloud of gas and dust to a height of seventeen miles or more which darkened the sun for 150 miles in every direction, raised a sea wave reaching 135 feet in height on adjacent coasts, resounded in every direction for a thousand miles, and in one direction for 2,968 miles (if not indeed to the Antipodes), and sent out a series of great atmospheric waves rolling in both directions three times around the globe. [29] The authority last quoted also says that the New Madrid earthquake of 1811-12 shook an area of a million and a quarter square miles; and that the Charleston earthquake of 1886 was felt over nearly one-half million square miles of land, and far out at sea. He gives at length also a description of the recent earthquake in the island of St. Vincent, West Indies, which shook all Martinique by the force of its explosion. The magnetic disturbances swept in swift undulations for thousands of miles, passed Maryland and Kansas in a few seconds, and reached Honolulu a minute or two later; while the ensuing rain of rock-dust stretched eastward a hundred miles beyond Barbadoes, westward to Jamaica, northward to Texas, and to the South American continent. [30]