378 Mr Lawson on the Trade-JFinds of Barbadoes, 



the manner of its approach, varied considerably in different 

 situations. Some houses were actually levelled to the earth, 

 when the residents of others, scarcely a mile apart, were not 

 sensible that the weather was unusually boisterous. 



" After midnight, the continued flashing of the lightning 

 was awfully grand, and a gale blew fiercely from the north 

 and north-east; but at 1 A. M., on the 11th August, the tem- 

 pestuous rage of the wind increased ; the storm, which at 

 one time blew from the north-east, suddenly shifted from 

 that quarter, and burst from the north-west and intermediate 

 points. The upper regions were from this time illuminated by 

 incessant lightnings ; but the quivering sheet of blaze was 

 surpassed in brilliancy by the darts of electric fire which 

 were exploded in every direction. A little after 2, the as- 

 tounding roar of the hurricane, which rushed from the north- 

 north-west and north-west cannot be described by language. 

 About 3 the wind occasionally abated, but intervening gusts 

 proceeded from the south-west, the west, and west-north- 

 west, with accumulated fury." 



At this time a number of meteors fell, and a few moments 

 after the " deafening noise of the wind sunk to a solemn 

 murmur, or, more correctly expressed, a distant roar," and 

 the lightning, " for the space of nearly half a minute, played 

 frightfully between the clouds and the earth with novel and 

 surprising action." 



^« The moment after this singular alternation of lightning, 

 the hurricane again burst from the western points with vio- 

 lence, prodigious beyond description, hurling before it thou- 

 sands of missiles — the fragments of every unsheltered struc- 

 ture of human art. The strongest houses were caused to 

 vibrate to their foundations, and the surface of the very earth 

 trembled as the destroyer raged over it. 



^- After 5 o'clock the storm, now and then for a few mo- 

 ments abating, made clearly audible the falling of tiles and 

 building materials, which by the last gust had probably been 

 carried to a loft-y height. 



^' At 6 A. M. the wind was at south, and at 7 south-east ; 

 at 8 east-south-east, and at 9 there was again clear wea- 

 ther. 



