96 A Whirlwind near Calcutta. [Jri^E, 



Major W. S. Trevor, R. E., proposed by Col. H. Hyde, R. E., seconded 

 by Dr. T. Oldham. 



The Council announce that they have appointed Captain J. Waterhouse 

 as General Secretary of the Society, Dr. Stoliczka and Mr. Blochmann con- 

 tinuing to act as Natural History and Philological Secretaries. 



Captain A. J. Filgate, R. E. not having paid his admission fee under 

 Rule 5, his election as member of the Society has become null and void. 



Mr. W. G-. Willson, officiating Meteorological Reporter, gave the fol- 

 lowing account of the occurrence of a whirlwind of unusual severity, attend- 

 ed with loss of life, in the neighbourhood of Calcutta. 



Some days ago I received from the Bengal Grovernment a copy of a 

 very interesting report, by the Deputy Magistrate of Satkherah, of a whirl- 

 wind which occurred on the evening of the 25th of April, at 'Alipiir, a vil- 

 lage about five miles to the south-west of Satkherah, which latter place is 

 situated about forty-six miles east by north of Calcutta. The substance of 

 the following account is taken from the report. 



" The storm commenced about 6 p. M. ; it was preceded by drizzling 

 rain and hail, and lasted from about ten to fifteen minutes. The general 

 direction of the storm's motion was from south-east to north-west. The 

 wind did not blow from one quarter only, but appears to have assumed the 

 character of a whirlwind, scattering thatches and trees in all directions. The 

 inhabitants of the village considered it as Birhatds, air troubled by the 

 fighting of two giants, and they described it as a column of smoke rising 

 towards the sky." 



" The area affected by the storm was small, being only one particular 

 quarter of the village, but dm-ing the fifteen minutes which it lasted, it blew 

 away every hut and tree within its reach. During the great cyclones of 

 recent years all the houses in a particular locality were not destroyed, some 

 were left standing, but this whirlwind razed to the ground all the houses it 

 touched. As an instance of the force of the wind, it is mentioned that a 

 dinghi, capable of carrying fifty maunds, or more, which was lying in tlie 

 Dhompotha Khal, to the west of 'Alipur village, was blown away along the 

 ground for upwards of three hundred yards from the water's edge. The 

 casualties caused by the storm were three persons killed and fifteen wounded ; 

 seventy-six huts destroyed and three head of cattle killed." 



From the Bengal meteorological registers for the second half of April, I 

 find that the trough of a considerably deep and long atmospheric wave, mov- 

 ing in a general direction from south-east to north-west, was passing over 

 Lower Bengal on the evening of the 25th of April. The lowest barometric 

 heights recorded at the following stations, for the half month, occurred, at 



