[Coco] (OT)Me, too, also, ...

[Dennis Bathory-Kitsz]

At 10:15 AM 2/25/04 -0800, Ray Watts wrote:

>Guess I don't have the magic touch for the proper word 
>selections.  I just finished reading a book about the 1883 
>eruption of Krakatau (Krakatoa) in Indonesia.  The book had 
>very specific and detailed written descriptions of geographical 
>locations such as towns and islands but no decent maps or 
>charts.  I searched Google under  both name variations and 
>under Sunda Strait, where it is located.  First, there were no
>maps of the area except for a detailed map of the island before 
>and after the eruption.  Second, just about all the written material 
>was at a level of a grade 6 or 7 composition research.  Not very 
>encouraging when you consider this was the greatest natural  
>disaster in recorded history, and it was well recorded, verbally, 
>at least.  I don't go to Google often, but when I do, it usually winds 
>up like that.   BTW - I have 2 atlas' weighing a total of about 20 
>pounds and they were of no help either.

Ah, maps! Yes, I understand what you're struggling with. You've come across
one of the great weaknesses of on-line archives.

A Google search "krakatoa topographic map 1883" hits #8 and #11 are proably
what you already saw:

http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/southeast_asia/indonesia/kra
katau.html
http://whyfiles.org/031volcano/krakatau.html

An earlier map is here:

http://www.seafriends.org.nz/issues/res/kermadec/kermhist.htm

As for more detailed maps, this is one of the areas where moving data
online has been slow. 
Map scanning is terribly time-consuming, maps themselves are expensive to
produce (or republish), and companies that own them are very reluctant to
offer them for free. For example, MSN Encarta or Earthscape, subscription
only:

http://www.earthscape.org/

Also, enormous numbers of historical maps are available from the USGPO, and
major depository libraries may have kept the navigation maps from that era.
Even though those map sections are supposed to include only current ones, a
few libraries (probably including the Library of Congress) have maintained
the earlier ones. There's an online reference of some of the USGS maps and
historical maps in the US collections:

http://mac.usgs.gov/mac/isb/pubs/factsheets/fs15499.html
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/gmdhome.html

(There's also the option of looking for sites which are not-sub-googled, so
to speak, such as National Geographic -- but their search engine is
terrible, and their online maps are not numerous and don't duplicate what
had been available for years in their magazines.)

An acclaimed map site is the Rumsey collection:

http://www.davidrumsey.com/

It does, however, require an IE client or similar. Even the latest Opera
browser is not supported, and if you go there, get ready for a nightmare of
massive downloads, operating system incompatibilities, etc. There you will
find an 1814 map of the area.



Dennis