oct. — dec. 1867.] Cyclone at Nellore. 



65 



IV. Description of a Cyclone at Nellore, on %id Novem- 

 ber 1857. By Lieut. John Mullins, Madras Engineers. 



Nellore was visited yesterday (Nov. 2nd) by a hurricane of un- 

 usual violence, which has devastated the station, and the surround- 

 ing neighbourhood, and done an enormous amount of damage to 

 property of every description, both public and private. 



The sky on Friday and Saturday, the 30th and 31st ultimo, 

 had a leaden appearance, which made the Natives think that there 

 would be a high wind. On Saturday night and Sunday morning, 

 (1st Nov.), there were moderate showers with a strong wind from 

 the west, and towards evening the wind had increased to half a 

 gale. The aneroid and mercurial barometers were both falling, and 

 at | past 9 p. m,, the former showed afall of T 'oths of an inch and the 

 weather was what is generally called by seamen " very dirty." 

 From this time to 0*45 a. m., the wind continued to increase, and 

 was then blowing a heavy gale, with a good deal of rain. The 

 aneroid barometer had fallen very nearly T * 0 ths since | past 9 or 

 , 4 oths altogether ; a little before 4 the gale had increased to a hur- 

 ricane, trees on all sides were being torn up or broken off, and it 

 was only with great difficulty that doors and windows could be 

 kept shut. The hurricane continued to increase until J to 5, 

 when the gusts were terrific, the aneroid had fallen ^ths of an 

 inch in 4 hours, and was still going down rapidly. Shortly after 

 J past 5 I fell asleep, and on awaking at J past 6, I found to my 

 surprise that there was a perfect calm, but on examining the aneroid, 

 I found that a further fall of nearly T Vths had occurred during the 

 preceding hour, and in 10 minutes more a further fall of ^ths took 

 place. I then knew that we were in the centre of a cyclone, and 

 that before long the wind would recommence with probably equal 

 fury. All this time the direction of the wind was from west and 

 northwest, and ultimately about north north west, as nearly as 



