82 THE TAY BEIDGE GALE OF DECEMBER 28, 1879, AND THE 



or " Stoifm," from its severity having occasioned the fall of that 

 structure, carrying with it in its fall, and embedding in its 

 ruins, an entire railway train, with its living freight of passengers, 

 who were crossing its span at the awful moment when the crash 

 took place. It w^as on the night of Sunday, 28th December 

 1879, and between six and seven p.m., when the gale was at its 

 highest, that this sad catastrophe took place, and next morning, 

 when the placid and calm waters of the Tay smiled as if no 

 such dread secret w^ere enclosed in their breast, many a broad 

 plantation in Perthshire, Fife, Forfar, Aberdeen and Inverness, 

 was lying confusedly hurled into one mass of debris of fallen 

 timber, trees of giant growth toppled over against each other, 

 others snapped across as if they were mere willow wands, and 

 acres upon acres of thriving larch and Scots fir in the Athole 

 plantations were swept over, and lay as flat as a floor. Indi- 

 vidual standard trees, of several centuries' growth, did not escape, 

 and probably the previous wet summer had left the ground so 

 soft and moist, that many of the masses of woods which were 

 levelled, owed their utter destruction, in no small measure, to 

 this circumstance. The storm was confined to a broadish belt 

 of country, whose mean line may be said to have extended from 

 lona to inverness, and to that track, with wide parallels on 

 either side, the damage to trees and woods is found to be chiefly 

 confined. The extraordinary barometric fluctuations at all 

 points, ascertained from observations made with sufficient fre- 

 quency, were very remarkable, and characteristic of this storm, 

 its rates of progress during the worst hours of its continuance, 

 w^ere in statute miles :* — 



4 to 5 p.M 30 miles. 



5 to 6 P.M. 



6 to 7 P.M. 



7 to 8 P.M. 



8 to 9 P.M. 



This latter rate for the two last hours beins three and a half 

 times the average progressive rate of storms in this part of 

 Europe. Mr. Buchan of the Meteorological Society finds that 

 taking much shorter periods than sixty minutes, the traces show 

 still greater velocities, and he estimates the hourly rates for the 

 undermentioned intervals as follows: — 



Scottish Meteoi-ological Society Joimud, vol. v. p. 35/ 



