Hurricane or Whirlwind of the 8th of April, 1838. 71 



writings in your Journal. I preferred using a kind of adjective 

 or descriptive name, to running the hazard of misapplying the 

 names of the great masters in the science, until I might have the 

 means of correctly understanding their applications. I claim no- 

 thing but that of having given the true relations of our rocks, with 

 plain, but accurate descriptions ; made in all cases from my per- 

 sonal examinations. When the most approved names are set to 

 the rocks which I describe, it is my hope, that future geologists 

 will be in some measure relieved by my labors. But I acknowl- 

 edge that any one could have performed what I have done, had 

 he been sustained as I was, for nineteen years, (twelve of which 

 I was much in the field,) by the munificence of the lamented 

 Stephen Van Rensselaer. I did nothing but go from rock to rock, 

 comparing their structure, mineralogical constituents, and order of 

 superposition. This duty I performed faithfully, and with most 

 ardent zeal, according to the directions of my patron, from the 

 year 1820 to 1832. Since the year 1832, I have been chiefly 

 confined at home by diflicult respiration. Specimens of organi- 

 zed remains, collected by students in their travelling tours, for 

 the last four or five years, I have carefully considered ; and I 

 hope that my knowledge of them, though imperfect, may be use- 

 ful. It is Mr. Conrad's duty to give us all he knows of them, 

 (which is as much as any man can give us,) in his final report. 



P. S, Allow me a little space for acknowledging my obliga- 

 tions to Dr. Theodric Romeyn Beck, of Albany, for first propo- 

 sing to Gen. Van Rensselaer, that he should employ me as his 

 geological surveyor. 



Art. V. — Account of the Hurricane or Whirlwind of the 8th of 

 April, 1838. By Mr. J. Floyd ; communicated by J. H. Pat- 

 ton, Esq., Magistrate of the 24 Pergunnahs. 



Abridged from the India Review and Journal of Foreign Science and Arts, for 



July, 1833. 



This remarkable whirlwind swept through the villages, near 

 the city of Calcutta, on a course nearly southeast ; its path being 

 from a quarter to half a mile in width.* The destructive effects 



* The track of this whirlwind passed within three miles of Calcutta, on its east- 

 ern side, between the city and the great salt-water lake. Its average course on 



