TORNADOES. 173 



land. So tremendous was the force of this hurricane 

 (Captain Maury tells us) that " the bark was blown 

 from the trees, and the fruits of the earth destroyed ; 

 the very bottom and depths of the sea were uprooted 

 forts and castles were washed away, and their great 

 guns carried in the air like chaif ; houses were razed ; 

 ships wrecked; and the bodies of men and beasts 

 lifted up in the air and dashed to pieces in the storm " 

 an account, however, which (though doubtless 

 faithfully rendered by Maury from the authorities he 

 consulted) must perhaps be accepted cum grano, and 

 especially with reference to the great guns carried in 

 the air "like chaff."* 



In the gale of August, 1782, all the trophies of 

 Lord Rodney's victory, except the " Ardent," were de- 

 stroyed, two British ships-of-the-line foundered at sea, 

 numbers of merchantmen under Admiral Graves's con- 

 voy were wrecked, and at sea alone three thousand 

 lives were lost. 



Bat quite recently a storm far more destructive 

 than these swept over the Bay of Bengal. Most of our 

 readers doubtless remember the great gale of October, 

 1864, in which all the ships in harbor at Calcutta 

 were swept from their anchorage, and driven one upon 

 another in inextricable confusion. Fearful as was the 



* We remember to have read that in this hurricane guns which had 

 long lain under water were washed up like mere drift upon the beach. 

 Perhaps this circumstance grew gradually into the incredible story 

 above recorded. 



