prevalent Disorders, fyc 9 with Volcanic Emanations. 149 



violence was at Khyook Phoo, and Akyab. At the former 

 place it left but one house standing, tore up tamarind trees by 

 the roots, destroyed all the bridges, deluged the country with 

 torrents of rain, and caused such a rapid rise of the sea, that 

 the waves rushed over the land, washing away buildings, and 

 wrecking all the vessels. The hurricane lasted there only two 

 hours. At Akyab, it commenced at 4 a.m., blowing from the 

 north till 1 1, when it shifted to the west, and blew most vio- 

 lently, carrying everything before it, till 5 p.m. when it ceased. 

 Similar calamities occurred here as at Khyook Phoo. {Asiatic 

 Journ.) xv. 198.) At this very period, famine, caused by 

 long drought, was rife in Ajmere and other parts of India, 

 and sickness of various kinds was depopulating the country 

 of Arracan. (Id.) The cholera, also, was raging at Purneah 

 and Calcutta most destructively. (Id. p. 195.) The upper 

 part of the Bay of Bengal * is especially subject to hurricanes. 

 The following particulars of the hurricane which occurred at 

 Balasore on Oct. 31. 1831, are not without their interest, as 

 exhibiting the awful effects of such a derangement of the 

 elements. The passage is extracted from a private letter 

 written about ten days after : — 



" I can think of nothing but the hurricane which occurred 

 here on the last day of October; such a calamity I never 

 heard or read of: at least 10,000 persons in my jurisdiction 

 were drowned, and I fear the accounts will show double that 

 number, including children. The high road from Madras 

 to Calcutta runs through Balasore, about six miles north of 

 this ; and where it is, in a direct line, nine miles from the coast, 

 the sea crossed it, carrying with it every living thing in that 

 space. At least 150 square miles were inundated from ten to 

 fifteen feet deep. The deck and part of a vessel are on the 

 road. Where the sea crossed it on the west side, and was 

 checked by the road on the east side, are lying, all dead and 

 heaped together, men, tigers, buffaloes, cows, &c. I have 

 sent out hundreds to burn and bury, but if it does not breed 

 a pestilence we shall be lucky : it is not easy to dispose of 

 bodies covering miles. Persons whom 1 sent out report that 

 for three miles inland, where my bungalow cottage was, all is 

 silence and death ; not a house or vestige of life remains ; that 



196.) The Brahmans say that, about 600 years ago, a far more frightful 

 earthquake occurred, doing greater damage far and near. 



The country shaken by these earthquakes was that comprised between 

 Tingri (28° n.), Calcutta, and Rungpoor, and Delhi : a tract of 3000 square 

 miles in and south of the Himalaya range. 



* Calcutta is not more than 400 miles from the place of the hurricanes 

 in Arracan, and only 141 miles from Balasore. 



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