Blown to Bits, A tale of the Krakatoa Volcanic Explosion, by R.M.
Ballantyne.
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This book is a most enjoyable read. We can, however, detect that
Ballantyne had been reading up various works by W.H.G. Kingston and by
G. Manville Fenn. It's just the knowledge of forest life in Java and
Sumatra that makes us think that. But that knowledge is good, for it
makes those parts of the book that take place in these forests ring all
the more true.
As so often with Victorian authors writing for teenagers there is a
delightful coloured auxiliary hero. But there is another even more
important auxiliary hero, van der Kemp, and it is this man and his
doings that form the real interest of this story. He had made himself a
home in an island of the Krakatoa group, and a very interesting home it
is, too. He travels about, mostly, in a three-seater canoe of the Rob
Roy type, that seems able to travel great distances over the sea,
sailing some of the way, and to withstand heavy weather, in a most
surprising manner.
There is a good description of the eruption, or rather explosion, of
Krakatoa. This was one of the major geological events of the century,
and might well have been taken for granted, with the author assuming
that his youthful readers knew all about it, but, thank Goodness, he
does not.
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BLOWN TO BITS, A TALE OF THE KRAKATOA VOLCANIC EXPLOSION, BY R.M.
BALLANTYNE.