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



I also visited Majaree Gaon, Pergunnah Anarpeer, Dum Dum, 

 Anundpore, Baleaghatta, the salt water lake, and adjacent villa- 

 ges. Baleaghatta suffered less than other places, but Mr. G. 

 Princeps' salt works, on the opposite side of the canal, have suf- 

 fered materially.* 



On the canal, it would appear by information collected from 

 the boatmen and others, that fifteen lives were lost, and about 

 twelve boats. That there may have been more I do not deny ; I 

 saw only five wrecks, one of them in the new dock, said to have 

 been conveyed thither by the violence of the wind, the anchor of 

 which must have weighed at least twelve maunds ! But in " Bair- 

 nala," almost every boat was swamped. The villages of Sam- 

 bandal and Chowbagan have been laid desolate ; men, women, 

 and children, as well as animals have died without number. I 

 say, without number, because there was an established hut in 

 Sambandal. and on that day, I understand, it was crowded to ex- 

 cess by people from the neighboring villages, as well as by res- 

 idents. In other villages the visitation has been awful indeed, 

 but in these places it surpasses all description. As far as the eye 

 could reach, not a house is to be seen. The grass (I am at a loss 

 to account for it) has been consumed, and the choppers [frames?] 

 of houses have vanished as if they were mere vapor. Dongahs 

 and saulteesf have been carried up, and in their descent shattered 

 to atoms. The bark of the palm trees has been peeled off as 

 with a knife, and their leaves broken into shreds. I am of opin- 

 ion, that the effect of the whirlwuid was more severely felt at 

 Chowbagan and Sambandal, than at any other part ; also that it 

 was owing to the vast expanse of water over which it took its 



*Some particulars of the damage sustained by these works, are worthy of record. 

 An iron salt boiler, weighing more than a maund, was lifted into the air and con- 

 veyed a few yards distance. The tiles of the terraces, laid in the best cement, were 

 ripped up as it were by suction. A boat lying on the ground for repair, disappear- 

 ed, and only a few fragments were found. It appears, from an observation made 

 by Prof. O'Shaughnessy in this month's Asiatic Society's proceedings, that some 

 of the salt fell in lumps at a great distance. Large beams were lodged on the salt 

 works/ro?M the opposite side of the canal. But the most extraordinary proof of the 

 force exerted in a lateral direction, was evinced in the projection of a slight bamboo 

 horizontally through one of the raised tiled walks, which pierced through the 

 whole breadth, breaking the tiles on both sides. It has been cut off and preserved 

 in aitu, as the monument of the storm. A six pounder could hardly have forced so 

 light an arrow through a mass of earth five feet tliick. — Editor of the India Revieio 



t Canoes and hollowed logs of wood used as fishing boats. — Id. 



Vol. XXXVI, No. 1.— Jan .-April, 1839. 10 . 



