GREAT CYCLONIC WAVE IN INDIA. 123 



Then, coming down to our own time, we have the 

 great cyclone of 1876 in India, when one of the most 

 frightful catastrophes ever recorded in any country 

 took place on the night of October 31, 1876, in the 

 estuary of the Brahmaputra: 



" At midnight a furious wind drove the sea water into the 

 estuary, thus banking up the river for many miles. The 

 wind then circling round, after the manner of cyclones, 

 brought its force to bear on the accumulated mass of river 

 water, driving it seawards. Thus there was a tremendous 

 refluence of the flood, placing hundreds of populous villages 

 under many feet of water, and more than 100,000 persons 

 were drowned in the darkness of that night." * 



When the morning broke the retiring waters dis- 

 closed a scene of death, ruin, and desolation; a good 

 many persons saved themselves by climbing into 

 trees, but all the rest of the population, cattle, and live 

 stock of all kinds, lay dead, throughout the entire 

 area of the submerged district. 



Still more recent is the terrible hurricane at the 

 Mauritius, which occurred on the 2Qth of April, 1892, 

 and' was one of the most destructive wind storms ever 

 known. 



" iioo people were killed by it, and 2000 wounded. One- 

 third of the capital (Port St. Louis) was levelled to the 

 ground, and 30 out of 50 churches were demolished. Whole 

 villages were swept away, and some 50,000 people left 

 homeless." t 



In this case it is stated that the result of observa- 

 tions shows 



* India in 1880, by Sir R. Temple, 1881, p. 380. 



f The Cyclone of April 29 in the Mauritius, by Robert E. H. 

 Jermingham, C.M.G., Lieut.-Orovernor of Mauritius; in Blackwood's 

 Magazine for September 1892, pp. 342 347. 



