GREAT CYCLONES AT CALCUTTA. 501 



The historical records of India are full of such cases , 

 which have been handed down from generation to 

 generation in the native annals. 



These cyclonic storms may occur at any period of 

 the year, though they are rarest in February; while 

 they are most common in April and May, and again 

 in August and September: periods which are more or 

 less coincident with the transit of the sun in the zenith. 



The destruction created by some of these storms 

 has at times proved truly appalling. Thus, in an article 

 in the Calcutta Review, No. 36, it is asserted that before 

 Calcutta was founded, Sangor Island, at the mouth of 

 the Hooghly, contained 200,000 inhabitants, who were 

 all swept away in 1688, in one night* 



The records of the city of Calcutta itself also testify 

 to numerous instances of severe losses to both life and 

 property, inflicted upon that town by cyclones. 

 On October 5, 1864, for example, a great cyclone 

 occurred, followed by a " bore" or tidal wave in the 

 Hooghly, 30 feet high, which did immense damage to 

 the shipping and houses, f 



The destruction created by this storm which extended 

 over a large area, seems to have been enormous 

 everywhere in its track; about 100 ships are said to 

 have been lost, and about 60,000 persons perished in 

 it, whole towns being nearly destroyed by it. This 

 was followed on November i, 1867, by another storm, 

 which though not so generally destructive as that of 

 1864, did great damage at Calcutta and in the sur- 

 rounding country, about 60,000 houses being unroofed, 

 much small shipping lost, and the crops of Lower 



* See Murray's Handbook for the Bengal Presidency, 1882, p. 83. 

 f Haydn's Dictionary of Dates, 1 4th edition (Article "Calcutta"). 

 Ibid. 



