502 GREAT TIDAL WAVE ON THE BRAMAPUTRA. 



Bengal destroyed. * But the appalling calamity mark- 

 ing the track of the great cyclone of October 31, 

 1876, far exceeded all previous records of damage 

 done, in modern times at all events. This time the 

 vortex of the storm seems to have passed on the 

 opposite or eastern side of the delta, and the heaviest 

 losses occurred in the country adjoining the .Megna 

 river, near the confluence of the Brahmaputra with the 

 Ganges. 



"At midnight," says Sir Richard Temple, "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, completing 

 the submergence of the entire neighbourhood, and placing 

 hundreds of populous villages under many feet of water." 

 " More than 100,000 people were drowned in the darkness 

 of that night, and the morning broke upon districts where 

 the retiring waters disclosed death, ruin, and desolation." f 



In some villages almost the whole population was 

 completely exterminated, with the exception of a few 

 individuals who managed to save themselves by cling- 

 ing to the tops of trees, etc.; and of course cattle 

 and other domestic animals perished almost without 

 exception. These brief and terrible details, which we 

 must endeavour to compress within the narrowest 

 possible limits, sufficiently prove the fearful nature of 

 some of these visitations in Bengal and its adjacent 

 seas, and show that there is probably no other region 



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

 f India in 1880, by Sir Richard Temple, late Lieut.-Governor of 

 Bombay, 1881, pp. 380 I. 



