THE GREAT BENGAL CYCLONE OF 1876. 195 



tants. The people had only a few minutes to think of their safety, 

 Avhen the wave rose ten to twenty feet above the land. Two hours 

 later the flood began to subside, but not till noon of the following 

 day could the survivors quit their places of refuge in the trees, etc' 

 As luck would have it, the villages are surrounded by groves of cocoa- 

 nut and palm trees : those who saved themselves did so by taking to 

 the trees. Some took refuge on the house-tops, but the water entered 

 the houses and rose to the roofs, and carried them off to the sea, to- 

 gether with the people upon them. There was hardly a household on 

 the islands, or on the neighboring coast, but had lost several of its 

 members. All the cattle were lost. Boats were swept away, and as 

 wagons on wheels are unknown in that region, all means of commu- 

 nication failed. Nearly all of the civil and police officials perished. 

 The town of Dowluctor was utterly destroyed. The loss in cattle 

 cannot be estimated. The crops suffered greatly, but it is hoped that 

 enough remains to prevent a famine. The entire flooded region looks 

 like a waste. Still the condition of the survivors just after the catastro- 

 phe was better than was to have been expected. The farmers of that 

 region are the most thrifty in Bengal; the provisions are mostly 

 kept buried in the ground ; hence, though they were damaged by 

 water, they can still be used for food. Wherever Sir R. Temple went 

 he found the people drying grain in the sun. Until harvest-time, the 

 cocoanuts will be of some assistance. Prior to the calamity, the 

 harvest promised to be very bountiful ; as it is, it will be a fair one. 

 About sixty relief-stations were established. The official journal 

 says : " Wherever the storm-wave struck, not a third part of the pop- 

 ulation, it is believed, survives. The islands have only a fourth of 

 their former inhabitants. The odor of the decaying carcasses is intol- 

 erable, and a general outbreak of cholera is hourly expected." From 

 an official communication, it appears that there perished in Chittagong 

 during the storm over 3,000 souls, and between October 31st and De- 

 cember 31st, 4,399 persons died of cholera. Since New- Year's cholera 

 has raged fearfully. In the district of Noakholly there died in Octo- 

 ber 43,544 persons, and in the following three months 30,263. Indeed, 

 with the exception of the islands of Hattia and Sundney, the deaths 

 from cholera everywhere have exceeded those caused by the inunda- 

 tion. On these two islands the number of deaths in October way 

 34,70s ; later it was only 7,139. 



Thus, in the course of eighty-seven years, half a million of human 

 beings have lost their lives by cyclones, without counting the mortal- 

 ity from pestilence and famine. Das Ausland. 



