393 CONNECTION BETWEEN STORMS AND SUN-SPOTS. 



steeple of the great church at Copenhagen. In the same year, and the suc- 

 ceeding two years, terrible storms occurred in Northamptonshire, in which 

 "the hailstones measured from seven to fifteen inches around.'' On the 3d . 

 ■of September, 1658 — the day that Cromwell died — a most terrible and 

 destructive storm extended all over Europe. In 1696, during a fearful storm 

 in the Baj- of Cromer, two hundred vessels, with all their crews, were lost. 

 In the same year, April 29, a hail storm raged at Cheshire, Lanconshirc, 

 and other parts of England, that killed fowls and knocked down horses and 

 men. On the 4th of May, in the same year, in Herefordshire, hailstones fell 

 that measured fourteen inches in circumference, "destro3'ing trees and green 

 fields in a terrible manner." One of the most fearful that ever occurred in 

 England — November 27, 1708, unroofed hundreds of houses and churches, 

 blew down chimneys and steeples, and tore whole groves of trees up by the 

 roots. '-The leads of lai-ge buildings were rolled up like scrolls of parch- 

 ment, and several boats and barges were sunk in the Thames." The royal 

 navy suffered the greatest damage. It had just returned from the Mediter- 

 ranean, and "one first rate, one second rate, four third rates, and four fourth 

 rates were wrecked, and over fifteen hundred sailors lost." A large number 

 of merchant vessels were also lost. In the citj^ of London the damage was 

 estimated at five millions of dollars. The Carolinas were terribly devastated 

 by storms in the months of August, 1722-8. At St. Kitts twenty ships were 

 lost. On the 30th of June, 1733, at the mouth of the Ganges, in India, a most 

 fearful storm destroyed twenty thousand vessels of all kinds, among which 

 were eight East Indiamen. In this storm three hundred thousand lives were 

 lost. The tide rose forty feet higher than usual. Another at Nantes occur- 

 red on the 7th of March, 174:1, when sixty-six vessels and eight hundred 

 sailors were lost. On the 10th of August and 8th of December, 1751, dur- 

 ing severe storms at Cadiz, and on the South Carolina coast, shipping was 

 destroyed to the value of three hundred thousand dollars. In a storm at 

 Girginti, in Italy, on the 4th of May, 1761, "the hailstones weighed a pound 

 and a quarter and did immense damage." On the 18th of April, 1772, at St. 

 lago, "hailstones fell as large as oranges." On the 16th ot July, of the same 

 year, a terrible tempest raged at St. Ivitts, which devastated that and ad- 

 joining islands. On the 30th of August, the same season as the above two 

 terrible storms, a fearful tornado visited Boston. In July, 1773, fearful 

 storms occurred in Cuba, and Algenon, in France. The hail Avas awfully 

 destructive, the hailstones measuring six inches in diameter. Antwerp, and 

 other places in Holland suffered from a severe storm on the 3d of August, 

 1774, when the hailstones weighed nearly a pound, which killed horses, 

 cows and other animals, and totally destroyed the growing crops. The 

 whole of the West Indies was visited again on the 11th of June, 1776 — one 

 of the most severe storms ever known. Another storm occurred at Jamaica on 

 the 6th of September, of the same year. Over the whole of England a most ter- 

 rific storm raged for three daj's in January, 1779. Madeira was the scene 

 ■of a fearful storm on the 26th of July, 1782. Thirty thousand dollars worth 



