206 Podlcr and Crombie — On the Tornado which [No. 2, 



a.pproaclies the town at the old Muhammadan Fort, the Lalbagh, just 

 above the Water-works, at an obtuse angle to its old course, which was 

 nearly straight from Hazaribagh on the west to Fatula a village 6 

 miles down the Narainganj road on the south-east. At the extreme 

 west end of Hazaribagh is a mosque, Fakirni-ka-masjid. From this 

 mosque a slightly sinuous road runs as far as the Lalbagh at an average 

 distance of 300 feet from the old river bank. There are houses on both 

 sides of the road, but at first they are chiefly between the road and the 

 river bank. They are nearly all mat huts, the only masonry buildings 

 being mosques : for this part of Dacca is Muhammadan. Afterwards, as 

 the road runs successively through the mohuUas called Inayatgunj, 

 Nawabgunj, and Amligolah, pucka houses become more and more 

 numerous, and in Amligolah, which is close to the Lalbagh, the majority 

 of the houses are of this nature, and the inhabitants are mostly Hindu. 



The first clear signs of the rotatory nature of the tempest occurred in 

 an orchard to the north-east of Fakirni-ka-masjid, and close to it on the 

 north side of the road referred to. Here there are remains of a clump 

 of plantain trees thrown down and twisted in all directions clearly 

 showing that they were in the vortex itself. Around this clump of 

 plantains there was a fine old plantation chiefly of mangoes and jacks. 

 The branches of all the trees to the north are broken off and thrown to 

 the west, those on the south are thrown to the east, and several of the 

 largest of them are uprooted bodily, and are now lying prone in the 

 same directions, showing that even here the storm was already, in the 

 very beginning of its manifestations, one of great violence. The 

 masjid itself had only a few bricks disturbed, and the lie of the broken 

 trees to the south-west of it was towards the north-east. 



From this point to the north-east of Fakirni-ka-masjid, the vortex 

 travelled in a south-easterly direction, crossing the road at an acute 

 angle, and from that point continued its course between the road and the 

 old river bank destroying every kutcha hut in this portion of Dacca. 

 All the indications given were as above. Everything to the right of the 

 vortex, that is, on the river bank itself was broken and laid low in a 

 forward direction towards the east. There the advancing lateral radius 

 was at work, while, on the road and to the north of it, all the indications 

 were in an opposite direction, the work of the retrograding lateral 

 radius. Between the river bank and the road, where the winds on the 

 anterior and posterior radii were at work in opposite directions, there 

 was mere confused destruction. 



As the whirlwind passed eastwards along Inayatgunj, it gradually 

 edo-ed more and more towards the old bed of the river. This was pro- 

 bably due to the greater resistance offered to the forces on the left of 



