1875.] Wliirhvind in the Maimansingh District. 105 



ing south-west from the same spot, there lies in the midst of the stream a 

 large chur, the breadth of water between the khal and this chur being about 

 a mile. Somewhere in this mile-broad stream the eddy arose. Boats moor- 

 ed along the chur felt no disturbance. The day had been hot without a 

 breath of wind. Clouds lay in the south-west quarter only. About an hour 

 after sunset, the eddy, already a roaring whirlwind, carrying with it a swirl- 

 ing waterspout some 10 feet in height, judging from the height of the water- 

 mark on the bank, struck the eastern bank of the river at Shakhairlia Khal. 

 Here were moored eighteen large boats, most of them freight-carrying 

 masted boats of many maunds burden. All these were instantly overturned, 

 shattered, stove in, or flung on shore ; one large boat was lifted bodily into 

 the air, carried over the bank 15 feet in height, and dashed to pieces in a 

 field some 30 yards inland ; another small boat, carried a somewhat shorter 

 distance, lies in a field, with the keel smashed in and the ends split open. 

 A large boat lifted up, overturned, and flung down on the beach', struck 

 down a man, crushed him into the sand beneath it, and killed him. Another 

 man. carried off his feet, was dashed down and killed. A third man struck 

 down, and his skull fractured by some fragment, lingered some half-hour 

 and died. Another Jchdl, some 300 yards to the north, remained tranquil 

 and undisturbed. The whirlwind passed on north-eastward over some half 

 mile of maidan covered with cheena crops. Here no trace of its progress 

 appears, the crops are unhurt, and not even flattened, but show no sign. 

 Then came the village of Uladah, stretching north and south some half a 

 mile. In a moment the hurricane had passed through, leaving a strip 250 

 yards broad of utter devastation, while all remained untouched to the north 

 and south of its path. In this strip not a house was left standing ; the 

 roofs were whirled off, the walls stripped away ; the wooden posts torn away 

 with such violence as to break up and disintegrate the earthen bkitus in 

 which they had been fixed. All the plantain trees were wrenched off or 

 uprooted ; twelve large mango trees were torn up by the roots ; all the 

 trees that remained standing were stripped off their branches, large and 

 small, which were snapped off close to the trunk. A pool of water in the 

 midst of the village is heaped up with broken branches. The bamboo clumps 

 were twisted round and laid flat, the stems being broken up near the roots. 

 In this village 140 ghars were destined, 17 people were hurt, some badly, 

 and seven cattle killed. A dead cow was found among the broken bran- 

 ches of a mango tree some thirty feet above the ground. The whirlwind 

 continued its north-east course across a maidan of more than a mile, covered 

 with cheena for the most part. Here, again, it left no trace, except where 

 a long slip of bushes ran along an ail parallel with the direction of the 

 storm. These were flattened. Then the storm struck the northern end of 

 the village of Chanbari, part of the path passing clear of the village to the 



