Extract from a letter from Captain Reeves

Extract from a letter from Captain Reeves detailing the extent of the floating pumice associated with the 1883 eruption of Krakatau (Krakatoa) to Captain Joynbel, written from Madras.

The excerpt reads: Some time ago I saw a notice from the Krakatoa committee asking for information, and as I constantly passed immense fields of pumice it occured to me that they would like to hear of the drift of the pumice westward as bearing on the subject, hence my two letters to them. But now I find that while the main body of the pumice passed Natal in September and October last and a large quantity was cast ashore there on 29th September 1884, yet an immense field is floating about between the Maldives and Ceylon seemingly like the Sargasso Sea is in the Atlantic only in the one case weeds and the other pumice. For miles and miles the sea is covered in a thick coat of pumice on the top of which are numerous crabs and beneath which are very many strange small fish making it a home and shelter. It is quite astonishing the very large space this pumice has covered and if you had the whole of the observations of the various captains who must have passed it in various places you would have most excellent data with which to construct a current chart of the Indian Ocean".