THE CYCLONE OF 1876. 181 



plains ; but not a solitary vulture or raven appeared to feast 

 upon the dead, nor a single beast of prey to revel in the 

 banquet spread out for it. 



A singular circumstance attending these horrors now 

 presented itself. A week or more after death the remains of 

 the drowned lay dried and shrivelled outwardly, with features 

 plainly recognizable ; in almost all instances displaying an 

 expression of calm and placid repose, both in face and posture ; 

 distortion of features or limbs being rare, so far as my obser- 

 vation proved. 



Then followed a famine of water fit to drink ; a plague 

 of noisome flies succeeded, rendering all food distasteful ; and 

 lastly and inevitably the awful pestilence, which destroyed 

 more human beings than the cruel sea had done. It has been 

 estimated that in the three districts of Backergunge, Noak- 

 holly, and Chittagong, more than sixty thousand persons were 

 drowned in the course of an hour or two, but far more were 

 carried off by the cholera which followed the tracks of the 

 storm ; and these figures are probably somewhat below the 

 actual numbers. 



The destruction of animals, wild and domesticated, buf- 

 faloes only excepted, was almost complete in the tracts most 

 exposed to the fury of the hurricane ; and, as might be ex- 

 pected, women and children suffered much more than men. 



In the islet called " Nulchirah " we found surviving a 

 score or two adult males, but only two or three women and 

 children. In a moderate-sized pond in the same, lay sixty 

 corpses cast into it by the receding waters. However terrible 

 such calamities may be, it seems pretty certain that they will 

 recur once in a quarter of a century, the three last disastrous 

 ones, not counting those of lesser note, having occurred in 

 1827 (or 1828), 1852 and 1876. 



It is difficult to suggest any measures by which such loss 

 of life and property may be averted, or at least such as fall 

 within the reasonable limits of the power and duty of the 

 Government ; the landlords and the people acting in concert 

 might do much by digging large tanks or ponds, raising high 



