( 328 ) 



Some Notices of the great Storm and Flood which occurred in 

 the Counties of Aberdeen, Banff, Elgin, and Nairn, and 

 parts of Mearns, Angus, Perth, and Inverness, on the 3d 

 and 4 th August, 1829. 



[In a Letter from the Rev. James Farquharson, of Alford, Abeerdeenshire, 

 communicated by Captain Sabine.] 



At the period of this storm I was residing temporarily at the 

 village of Ballatu, situated on the river Dee, about forty 

 miles westward from Aberdeen ; and the house in which I 

 lodged is the nearest to the river and bridge which was swept 

 away, having from the windows a full view of both within 

 forty yards. 



On the day preceding the storm, the weather was mild and 

 warm, and the sky, shrouded by dense strata of clouds moving 

 slowly eastward, giving indications rather of the approach of a 

 westerly gale than of the terrible catastrophe which followed. 



The morning of the 3d August was ushered in with a drizzling 

 rain, with light wind from a point east of north. About 9 a. m. 

 the river began to be slightly discoloured with flood-water, in- 

 dicating more rain in the mountains than we yet had in the 

 valley. About mid-day the rain intermitted for two hours, 

 but came on again before 2 p. m., and the wind shifted to a 

 point west of north, the river slowly and uniformly rising all 

 the time; but up to 5 p. m. there was nothing unusual either 

 in the force of the wind or quantity of the rain. 



From about that hour the elements suddenly assumed all the 

 characters marked in the common descriptions which we have 

 received of the tropical hurricanes. The wind blew with ex- 

 treme violence in sudden gusts, and whirlwinds, whose centres 

 were well defined to the eye, as they crossed and vehemently 

 agitated the surface of the river. It is, probably, similar whirl- 

 winds which are described to us, when in the accounts of the 

 tropical hurricanes we are informed, " that the wind blows from 

 all points of the compass at once." The centres of those in 

 question all moved forward in parallel paths from a point west 

 of north ; and so great was their force, that having occasion to 

 give orders about my horse at a place about 150 yards from my 



