218 Pedler and Crombie — On the Tornado which [No. 2, 



of about seven miles. Its track was about east by south, and, like the 

 Dacca one, it was about 200 paces broad. The evidences of rotation 

 were equally clear, and the rotation was from right to left, all the trees 

 on the right or advancing radius being blown eastwards, while those on 

 the left or retrograding radius were broken westwards, — at Barakoer 

 there were signs of a great indraught from the north, similar to that 

 which occurred to the east of the Philkana at Dacca. This indraught 

 passed over the house of Babu Kali Prasanna Ghosh, manager of the 

 Bhowal estates. The force of the tornado was very great, and the loss 

 of life would have been much greater, if it had not selected a comparatively 

 open track of country for its course. In some of the villages over which 

 it passed, it made a clean sweep of everything, leaving only the raised 

 platforms over which the houses had stood. The people speak of men 

 having been lifted into the air and dashed down on the ground. 

 Twenty-one persons are said to have been killed in this way in the 

 village of Hashail. 

 Dacca, 

 2Srd April, 1888. 



The observer at the meteorological observatory at Dacca having 

 reported that the Tornado had passed through the compound of the 

 Telegraph Office, and this statement having appeared in the Meteorologi- 

 cal Report for the week ending the 13th of April, I subsequently wrote 

 to the officiating Meteorological Reporter as follows : — 



" In your short notice which was published last week in the Gazette, 

 you surmise that the tornado passed through the telegraph compound, but 

 you will see from these maps that this was not so. The Telegraph Office 

 was well to the right of its track. The trees blown down there were affected 

 by cyclonic blasts which circled round the real tornado, and at some dis- 

 tance from it. You will see that there were several such blasts. One 

 went between Beighton's house and my own, breaking down a lot of trees, 

 and carrying away the corner of the house occupied by Messrs. Edwards 

 and Wilson. It was such a blast that brought down the wall of the 

 lunatic asylum, which was well away to the north of the tornado, which 

 was at that time crossing the river. I think that the three police bar- 

 racks at the Lalbagh were perhaps affected by a similar blast, only they 

 were much nearer the vortex than the other examples now given. It is 

 otherwise difficult to understand how only those three were affected. 

 Some people even think that the blowing down of the asylum wall is 

 evidence that the vortex was somewhere there. But the damage near 

 the asylum is trivial, and there is no sign of the track either to or from 

 that point, and I am clear tliat it was not near it, and that my tracing is 

 practically correct. On the opposite side of the river it went rather more 

 inland than I have shown." 



