36 CORAL AND ATOLLS 



the most severe that has ever visited the atoll, and it wrought 

 extraordinary havoc in the settlement. Coconut palms were 

 twisted and snapped off, and trundled before the wind like 

 ninepins, so that the fury of the storm cut large glades through 

 the plantations, often in most capricious fashion. Extra- 

 ordinary freaks were played by the storm, for whilst it laid 

 whole areas bare, others, quite close at hand, remained un- 

 harmed ; and trees Avere selected as victims for its fury in the 

 most haphazard manner. Atap roofs were snatched from 

 houses and carried away, working sheds were laid low, and the 

 factories so carefully constructed under the new regime were 

 ruined. 



A portion of iron from the roof of the Governor's house 

 was whirled away by the storm, and made a plaything of the 

 wind, and to-day the scars are to be seen upon a large tree, 

 deep in the trunk of which it finally came to rest. The 

 destruction caused by the Avind did not account for the Avhole 

 of the ruin, for the seas became tremendous, and overrode the 

 limits of the barrier, carrying before them the Avreckage of all 

 that they could reach. 



Life Avas preserved Avith difficulty, and, Avhen the storm 

 Avas spent, the stricken islanders had but little to comfort 

 themselves Avith save Avhat each man stood up in, and the 

 Avreckage of his possessions. 



Thus were the fruits of George Ross' four years of work 

 dissipated in the brief visitation of the storm, and the 

 prosperous and smiling settlement Avas turned to a scene of 

 desolation and misery. But although the tropical islands are 

 liable to these sudden catastrophes, there is no place in Avhich 

 nature is so quick to efface the effects of the damage and to 

 repair the loss that the foAv hours of storm can cause. 



Neither Avas George Ross the type of man to despair in the 

 presence of this reverse, and once again he put all his energies 

 into the building up of the prosperity of the settlement. So 

 Avell did he succeed in this, that Avhen, in 1879, Dr. H. O. 

 Forbes visited the atoll he found a happy and contented 

 colony on the high road to the recovery of its lost fortunes. 



