Science: Life After Death

Krakatau, a volcanic island in the Sunda Straits about 25 miles from Java, destroyed two-thirds of itself in a mighty explosion in 1883, sent out a tidal wave that drowned 36,000 inhabitants of adjacent lands. In the Krakatau group, four new islands were formed from the wreck of the former three. Naturalists agreed almost unanimously that every particle of life, down to the last seed and spore, must have been wiped out by lava, ash, gas and steam, that if life again took root on the islands it must come from outside. A minutely detailed story of vegetable life on Krakatau since the catastrophe has now been published in Leiden by W. M. Docters van Leeuwen and was reviewed last week in the British journal Nature. In 1886, one-celled water plants, ferns and mosses had already established themselves. In 1905 a visitor found a large cycad (palmlike tree). Now the islands are covered with vegetation including tall trees, luxuriant shrubbery and thick grasses, comprising 271 species. Dr. Docters van Leeuwen estimates that 41% of this new life was borne to the islands by wind, 28% by ocean currents, 25% by birds, the rest by man.