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



as exhibited on sixteen miles of its track, near Calcutta, were ex- 

 amined by Mr. Floyd, in company with the magistrate, soon after 

 its occurrence. The examination commenced at the village of 

 Codeleah, near the termination of its ravages, and was continued 

 from thence towards the northwest, on the line of the storm. 



" At Codeleah many houses were destroyed, large trees were 

 torn up by the roots, and many were broken off at the stumps, 

 while the small and elastic ones escaped with only the loss of 

 leaves and branches. A peepul tree which had been standing 

 time out of mind, and to the knowledge of the oldest inhabitants 

 had never lost a bough, was the first tree that here encountered 

 the storm, and the first that fell. The circle from whence the 

 roots sprung, was 35 feet in diameter, and these being of extraor- 

 dinary length, caused the earth to come away with the tree, and 

 to leave a chasm of about 38 feet in width and 14 in depth ; most 

 of its stouter branches were wrenched off, and thrown into an ad- 

 joining tank, at such a distance as to prove the extraordinary vio- 

 lence with which the tree was assailed. The paths were ob- 

 structed by fallen trees, &c. and the tanks choked with branches. 

 Fifty persons have sustained bodily injury, but reports vary as to 

 deaths. Seventeen have their limbs severely injured, and I fear 

 cannot survive. The severest cases we advised to be removed to 

 the hospital at Allipore, but without effect ; the "Gunga," they 

 said, was close at hand, whither their friends would take them, 

 were they to die. 



At Bykunthpore, for about a quarter of a mile, not a house, hut, 

 nor tree had escaped the violence of the storm ; in fact every thing 

 that opposed its progress, was levelled to the ground. Persons vis- 

 iting the place, ignorant of the occurrence of the storm, would 

 suppose the mischief had been caused by fire. I had almost 

 come to the above conclusion myself on observing the stumps of 

 trees, withered leaves, and here and there posts of houses, &c. 

 Such was the violence of the wind, that cocoa-nut and date trees 

 were twisted out of the ground, and hurled to a distance of two or 

 three hundred feet ; granaries have been swept away, and life 

 both of man and beast destroyed. We traversed the whole ex- 

 tent of the village, and witnessed many shocking sights. 



this part of the route, as given on the sketch, appears to have been South 37° East. 

 It appears to have been remarkable for its slow rate of progress, and it is to this, 

 perhaps, that its unusual destructiveness is in part to be ascribed. 



