June i, 1891.] j HP Tf^OPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 877 
TEE NOETH-EAST MONSOON GOING OUT 
LIKE A LION : TORNADO, HAIL 
AND EAIN. 
The distinctions of cyclonic storm, true cyclone 
and tornado demand attention in noticing meteoro- 
logical ! phenomena. Cyclonic storms are com- 
mon enough in Ceylon, especially during the 
South-West monsoon. Cyclones, which are rare, 
occur generally in the North-East monsoon and 
are almost confined to the North and East of 
the island. Tornados, which are cyclonic in 
their character, of extreme violence, but of limited 
extent and short duration, occur more or less 
frequently all over the island, but they have so 
rarely visited the Nanuoya division of Dimbula, 
that special interest attaches to' the short but 
sharp experience to which the upper division of 
Abbotsford (elevation of factory 6,700 feet and 
bungalow 50 feet higher), was subjected on the 
7th instant. The accounts which have reached us 
of this forcible phenomenon are as follows ; — 
Abbotsford, Nanuoya, May 8tb. 
Yesterday afternoon at aboui 2,30 it got very dark, 
and suddenly there was a bright flash and a crash 
immediately accompanied by hail and a high wind 
which blew a big wattle right on to the ladies’ bath- 
room, bending and breaking the pipe, smashing the 
fence all to pieces, and wrenching 20 sheets of roofing 
frona our factory, aud blowing them clean over the 
whole building into the deep ravine below the cart 
road : six sheets attached to a reeper all went in 
one piece. Fortunately no further damage was done 
aud no one was injured: the whole storm only lasted 
about 40 minutes. 
Another account : — 
We have had very peculiar weather since you left 
and have not yet seen the last of (he N.-East 
monsoon. Tuesday was a lovely day with a pleasant 
N.-E. breeze, but no rain. On Wednesday it poured 
at the Lower Division where the rainfall measured 
1'84, but at the Upper Division where it would he 
far more welcome there was only a fall of 90 cents 
Yesterday (May 7th) there was a terrific squal 
about 2-30 p.m. which blew down several trees ami 
carried away some 30 sheets of roofing iron from 
the S.-W. corner of the large withering house. The 
whole roof would have gone had the wind continued, 
but fortunately it was all over in a few minutes. 
The three-inch reeper to which the iron is fixed was 
smashed to atoms aud the iron carried right over the 
factory and landed on the hillside towards Nanuoya. 
The reeper had held on some half-dozen sheets which 
would weigh fully a cwt., aud yet they went clean 
over everything like the single sheets ; so you may 
imagine what force the wind had. 
I was of course oiia of those whirlwinds which 
we t occasionally get towards the latter part of the 
N. East monsoon. 
The rainfall at the Upper Divisi on was only 41 cents 
but at the Lower, when it was accompanied by some, 
hail, ITO fell within 20 minutes ; aud has no doubt 
done some damige to roads and drains. I hope this 
may be the last of the N.-East. 
The occurrence of hail, the formation and depcosit 
of which was, no doubt, due to the action of 
electricity, was a marked feature in this tornado ; 
but it most have been confined to the vortex, as 
no mention is made of damage to the tea. An- 
other curious oircumstaneo is, that the rainfall 
should have been so much less at the centre of 
foi'oe than in the river valley mile distant and 
1,000 feet lower in elevation. A memorandum 
furnished to us is as follows : — 
Upper division May Gfh ’60 in. I Lower division 1'83 in. 
„ „ 7th -42 „ 1 „ 1.10 „ 
1-02 in. 2 >);iin. 
nearly 2 inches difference, in favour of the lower : 
division. 
110 
I Why all the whirling wind should concentrate at 
the higher alutude, and the rainfall, due, no 
' doubt to its disturbing effect on the atmosphere, 
should, in such large proportion, sweep down (he 
distant and much lower river valley, is a curious 
problem. The significance of the remark that 
the rain would have been more welcome above is 
due to the fact that the factory and dam 
were constructed there, (unfortunately, we now feel), 
as a time when tea grown on the upper fields, 
was deemed merely a subsidiary product to coffee 
of which there were 320 acres. Like so many 
others, those interested in the estate refused to 
believe that coffee was fatally stricken until con- 
viction was forced on them by crops and bushes 
dwindling away. The position of the factory has 
the advantage of being only two miles from the 
Nanuoya station, but had it been realized that tea 
would entirely supiereede coffee, a site lower down 
would have been chosen where copious streams 
pour down in waterfalls, Statements like this 
may qualify criticism regarding not only the'parti- 
oular case, but other similar ones. It is hard that 
the aid of a powerful steam engine should be 
required on a place where water is so abundant, 
(at 6,000 feet and under,) that the Tamil name 
is A'myf “ the 'Waterfall estate,” It may be 
added that this experience of a tornado at the 
high elevation is unique. By all the laws of 
meteorology, it ought rather to have rushed through 
and revolved in the river valley. But who can 
understand and direct the course of clouds sur- 
charged with electricity or calm the raging wind 
awakened into abnormal energy by the effects of 
the Eubtle and often deadly power or influence 
which we popularly call lightning ? Happily, in 
this tropric island, though exposed to both monsoons, 
we know but little of the fiercely cruel and fright- 
fully destructive storms, before which life and 
property are alike swept off the earth, in the river 
valleys and on the level prairies of “ the Far West,” 
Since the above was written, the following special 
telegram from Nanuoya has come to hand - 
THUNnERBOLTS FROM A BLUE SKY. 
{Special Telegram ) 
Nanuoya, May 9, 9 a.m. 
_ Yesterday afternoon at 2 30 p.m., two balls of 
lightaing fell apparently in a gaiden here, acoom- 
panied instantaneously by a fearful crash of thunder 
out of a perfectly quiet sky. There was a slight 
flash about 4 p.m., but no rain fell all day. 
, 5 , 
NOTES ON PRODUCE AND FINANCE. 
The Adulteeation op Produce. — At a meeting of 
Metropolitan grocers held on Monday at the Cannon 
Street Hotel to discuss the question of trade organisa- 
tion, Mr. D. R. Harvest, in the course of a speech, 
proposieg a resolution for appointing a committee to 
carry out the objects of the association, said that an 
association was sadiy wanted to protect the trade as 
much from the practice of dishonest methods within 
their own ranks as from outsiders. Prosecutions, be 
said, were enforced for the adulteration ef food stuffs 
and drugs, aud the retail dealers were often entirely 
without the means or knowledge of ascertaining 
whether what tlicy bought to sell to the public was 
pure or otherwise. It was known tliat an article called 
pepper had been offered in the market which did not 
contain one per cent of pepper. On another occasion, 
a whole cargo ot pepper which bad lain for some time 
in a wreck at the bottom of the Thames washed tvith 
Loudon sewage, and wliich stank abominably, aud 
should have been destroyed, was put up and sold to the 
trade. They know, too, that the Chinese made little 
olay balls exactly resembling pepper pods, aud these 
were plentifuilj mtermixtd with pepper coming from 
that sunny land. An association would help them to 
