The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-24 00:00:00

Severe Storm and Floods in tho North,

LOSS OF LIFE AND GREAT DESTRUC-
TION OF PROPERTY.
The Wick correspondent-of the Scotsman writes
This coast has this week been visited by one of the
most severe storms which we have experienced for
many years. On Wednesday evening a fresh breeze
of wind sprang up from the north-east, and con-
tinued to increase till midnight, when it burst forth
with terrific fury, accompanied by torrents of rain,
raising a tremendous sea along the coast and in the
bay. Fortunately there were no boats at sea at the
time, else the consequences would have been terrible.
As it was,;however, an immense amount of damage
has been done on shore. The works at the new har-
bour, which have been carried on almost without
interruption for the last 12 months, have been sud-
denly brought to a stand still by the complete demo-
lition, in the course of a few hours, of the ponderous
wooden staging, which it has taken many months
to erect. The staging, which was constructed of
heavy logs strongly bound together by iron clasps,
and secured by chains and anchors, had been carried
seawards about 400 feet, about 80 feet of which was
added to it within the last week. It was some 40 or
50 feet wide, and had three or four lines of rails laid
on its surface for the locomotive and waggons to run
along with the stones necessary for the construction
of the breakwater. The work was so strongly fas-
tened and bound together that the contractors and
resident engineer had no fear of its ever giving way,
although those acquainted with Wick Bay had
grave doubts as to its being able to withstand
the fury of the winter storms on this exposed
coast. These fears, I regret to say, have been
fully realised. Early on Thursday morning the
waves began to dash over it, and in the course
of a few hours about 300 feet of the work was car•
ried away and strewed along the beach in broken
fragments. In order to give some idea of the force
of the waves, it may be mentioned that many of the
huge logs of which the work was constructed,which
were 2i feet long, were snapped in pieces, and the
rails and heavy iron bolts bent and twisted
as if they were pieces of wire. Many hun•
dreds of tons of stone, too, have been displaced
by tho force of the storm and carried up to the beach,
several hundred yards distant. The loss entailed
by this most unfortunate disaster we have heard
variously at from £4,000 to £B,OOO, which, it is re-
posted, falls upon the British Fishery Society, and
not upon the contractors. It is a serious matter
for the town, too, as it will be the means of throw-
ing a large number of men idle, seeing that nothing
can be done without the staging, and that it is not
likely it will be again erected before spring. Fears
were entertained for the safety of the roads leading
to the quarries, which are constructed upon the
slope of the beach ; but the wind having veered
round more to the north in the course of the day
has been the means of running down the sea a
little ; so that with the exception of a piece of
the embankment which has been carried away
they are not likely to be seriously damaged.
The crops throughout the country will have
suffered severely from the fury of the storm.
A great quantity of corn is still in stock, and in the
upland districts a good deal of it is yet uncut, so
that the strong gale and heavy rains which have
literally deluged the fields and flooded all the straths
and low-lying districts will, I fear, leave a sad tale
behind it of ruin and disaster to many a poor farmer.
It is feared that from the suddenness and awful fury
of the storm tales of serious disasters at sea on the
north coast may yet be to tell. There has been no
intelligence received here to-day from Scrabeter,
where the storm would bo felt in all its terrible
force ; and fears are entertained for the safety of
several vessels known to be in that roadstead.
FLOOD IN THE GLEN OF ROTHES.
The Elgin Courant of Friday says :—" We have
to record one of the most severe hurricanes that
has visited this part of the kingdom for many
years, the effects of which will no doubt be told
in tales of disaster for days to come. Rain
began to fall on Wednesday afternoon about four
o'clock, with the wind from the northward, and,
as the afternoon advanced, a strong breeze turned
into a perfect hurricane, with an incessant torrent
of rain. This continued all Wednesday night with-
out intermission, and, w ith the exception of a few
hcurs on Thursday morning,the storm has continued
to the present moment. The rivers are in higher
flood than they have been since 1829, The Spey,
the Findhorn, the Lassie, and smaller streams are
roaring from bank to brae, and in many places they
are over their banks, and flooding the haughlands
along their courses. Much damage has been done.
The Link wood Burn, as it is called, which rises in the
Mancch Hill, on the west side of the glen of Rothes,
came down on Thursday morning in a perfect tor-
rent, and carried away some 30 or 40 yards of the
railway at the woollen manufactory in the Glen of
Rothes, completely intercepting all intercourse on
the line. When the goods train from Elgin went
up the glen at twelve o'clock, and came near the
mills, the driver saw a man standing on the line
waving a red flag on a pole, and soon discovered it
to be Mr. Hay, the miller, who was giving warning.
The train was stopped in time to prevent an acci-
dent. At the break made by the burn, Mr_ Hay
stood hours in the drenching rain to prevent an ac-
cident, and deserves the highest praise. The train
from lathes was stopped by breaks in the line
before it got up to the woollen mill, and returned.
It is said that some days will be required to repair
the damage done to the lino. The Lassie, as we
have said, has not been so flooded for 20 years.
Lossic-wynd, at the tanworks, was impassable—
ducks swimming half up the street, and people
compelled to go by North-street on their way to
and from Bishopmill. Many trees were seen pass-
ing down the torrent—even the Linkwood Burn
brought down trees from the Glen of lathes, show-
ing a terrible fall of rain from the hills, for the burn
when in its normal state is a mere streamlet:'
THE STORMS IN THE MORAY FIRTH.
The wind being from the northward, a truly tre-
mendous sea was rolling along the southern shore
of the Moray Firth the whole of Thursday. At
Lossiemouth it was impossible to face the storm
that raged with a violence which old fishermen said
had not been equalled for 30 years. The sea ap-
peared one unbroken sheet of white foam as far as
the eye could reach, The curling breakers extended
two miles out from the shore, to 12 fathoms water ;
and along the protection wall of the new basin the
spray was rising 30ft into the air. In the morning
a schooner was seen running up the Firth past Los-
siemouth, not far from the Skerries, and was ob-
served to bo struck by several tremendous seas.
She soon passed out of sight in the thick fog that
covered the foaming ocean, and none on this part of
the coast can tell her fate. She must have cleared
the promontory of Burghead, and we hope she
reached Crcmarty. Reports in Lossiemouth had it
that a vessel belonging to Hamburg, laden with
herrings from Lybster, was wrecked near Gar.
mouth, but tliat all hands were saved,
At Buckie, at one o'clock on Thursday afternoon,
15 boats were missing, but three or four of these ran
into Burghead Bay, under shelter of the head, and
the hands got off. We hope all the rest are safe,
but the excitement in Buckie was intense, so many
lives being in jeopardy. The alarm of the relatives
of the missing seamen was increased tenfold, in con-
sequence of some boat helms and kits being.washed
ashore to the eastward, indicating disaster. At
Cullen the gale was felt very severely. The Port-
kneekie boats were overtaken by it at the haddock
fishing, but they all made the harbour, with the ex-
ception of two. One of these was dashed upon a rock,
and drawn out to sea again, but the crew succeeded
in steering her to Craigenroan, a natural creek some
unites to the west, which has saved many a boat's
crew from a watery grave. The other i, still
Thu Cullen boats, happily, were not out. On some.
parts of the coast-side between Buckie and Banff it
was all but impossible to face the storm. The wind
was unroofing e
-artll,steading, blowing down stae!s,
breaking and uprooting trees.
rrsrarso IMATF; LOST AND MrSINO.
Early On Teuraday morning a boat belon.inr, to
rortessie, named the Laurel, was driven ashore at
Whitehills, Sae is said to be manned by a crew of
nine men, six or them brothers, and all must have
porished, for the boat was cast ashore empty. No
doubt it had been swamped among the breakers.
This ie a melancholy case, t
_beir being little hope of

the crew being saved by any other boat near her at
the time. At Burghead, such a tempest has rarely
been witnessed. There, on Wednesday evening,
the first premonitions of a coming gale were no-
ticed by the wind shifting from south to due
north. It was not till Thursday, however, that
the hurricane was at its height, and few of
the inhabitants of Burghead but were at the
pier before the first streak of day till the tempest
abated. On Thursday evening, about four
o'clock, two boats belonging to Buckie were
driven on the sands—the first about six in the
morning, the other about mid-day; The fishermen
in the boats were so exhausted and benumbed with
the cold that they could make no exertions to save
themselves, and had the Burghead fishermen licit
used the means they did they must have perisb.ed.
The brave fishermen of the Broch joined hand. in
hand, and waded into the sea until the waves were
breaking over their heads. In this way, with almost
superhuman exertions, they reached the bos.ts and
saved their struggling brethren. Three of the res.
cuers were so much exhausted that they had to be
borne home, or carried to the nearest dwelling. In
the forenoon, just as the other boats were being
saved from destruction, a boat was seen about a
mile to the west, now rising and now going under
the boiling sea, till at last a tremendous wave
was seen to break over the ill-fated boat, and she
went down with the whole of her unfortunate crew.
The name of the boat is unknown, and also the num■
ber of hands, but it is supposed she belonged to
Bookie.
A sloop, name unknown, but supposed to belong
to Kirkwall,,was seen east of Burghead, evidently
making for the shore. From the time the vessel
bore in sight she evidently was struggling despe.
rately with the heavy sea. There were only three
hands on board, and they seemed to cling with
desperation to the rigging, to which apparently
they had lashed themselves, else the waves, as
they broke over the mast, would have washed them

off. It was a heartrending sight to see the poor
fellows on the top of the sails tossing first to one

side and then to the other, and at every moment
likely to be engulfed by the waves. At one time it

was thought that nothing could save them, but,
fortunately, at a point not far from the shore, she
gave a tremendous luech, which carried her over a
sharp rock, and she landed on the sand at the
only spot on the shore where it was possible she
could do so with safety between Burg-
head and Lossiemouth. Here, again, the fisher-
men of Burghead came to the rescue, and with
commendable courage succeeded in reaching the
sloop and bringing the hands on shore.
GALES ON THE NORTHUMBERLAND COAST.

Though the gale from the S.W. abated upon the
coast of Northumberland during Thursday night,
the sea o❑ Friday off that coast was stronger than
had been observed during many months past, and
it denoted that much more stormy weather had been
experienced in the North Sea than had reached the
coast. Notwithstanding the very heavy sea, so
greatly has the water been improved at the mouth
of the Tyne by the dredging operations of the River
Tyne Commissioners, that a considerable fleet of
laden vessels sailed from the river on Friday morn-
ing. The latest intelligence from the stranded
Ontario leads to the impression that, with the pre•
sent weather, she will speedily break up. The crew
had left her in the ship's lifeboats. A strong desire
is felt for the official account of how the vessel was
run on Hasbro' sand at nearly midday, with the sea
comparatively calm. The vessel is stated to be worth
£200,000.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE,

EAST INDIAN.

The report of the directors of this company states
that on the Bengal division the engineering staff
had been mainly occupied in the maintenance of
the line; the staff had been considerably reduced,
and the chief ergineer's attention was constantly
engaged in the endeavour to secure the highest
state of efficiency in the minimum of cost. in the
North-West Provinces the line between Mogulserai
and Nlirzapore, 391 miles, was opened for public
traffic on the Ist of January; between Ilirzlpore
and the south bank of the Jumna at Allahab.4
521 miles, on the Ist of June; between Allyghur
and Bolundshuhur.road Station, 351 miles, on the
let of April; between the latter place and the
bank of Jumna at Delhi, 421 miles, on the let of
August—together 170 miles, Mr Sibley, the chief
engineer, entertained hopes of being able to open
the bridge over the Jumna at Allahabad about
March next, and stated that the entire works of con-
struction on this division of the line were being ra-
pidly brought to a conclusion. On the Jubbulpore
line the works were progressing to the satisfaction
of Mr Lelllesurier, the engineer. It had been found
desirable to substitute iron girders for the stone
arches originally designed for six of the bridges.
This alteration had been sanctioned by the Govern.
ment, and the iron girders wero in course of manu-
facture. A delay is the selection of the site for
Jubbulpore Station hid caused considerable incon-
venience. The decision rested with the Govern-
ment, and the Board trusted that the settlement of
this important question might be no longer de-
ferred. The average length of line in work on the
Bengal division during the half-year ended the 30th
of June last was 674 miles, which included a
further portion of the line constructed by the engi-
neers of the Norths Western Provinces division.
The average length in work during the half-year
ended the 31st of December, 1863, was 6081 miles.
The number of passengers carried during the half-
year ending the 30th of June last was 1,693,880, of
which 1,648,592 were thirthclass, 32,996 second-
class, and 12,292 first-class. The gross traffic re-
ceipts for the half-year ended the 30th of June last
had been £492,169, and the net receipts £247,671.
The net traffic receipts on the Bengal division from
the opening of the line to the 30th of June last had
been £1,461,762. The average length of line in
work on the North-Western Provinces division
during the half-year ended the 30th of June last
was 346 miles, and for the half•year ended the 31st
of December, 1863, 3281 miles, showing an increase
of 181 miles. The permanent way and works had
been maintained in efficient order at a cost of rather
less than 9d per train mile. The working expenses

had been 4987 per cent. The number of passen-
gers carried during the past half-year was 370,212,
of whom 360,735 were third-class, 6,565 second-
class, and 2,892 first-class. The gross traffic re-
ceipts for the half-year had been £159,974, and the
net receipts £80,207. The net traffic receipts since
the opening of the line for public traffic in the
North-West Provinces division had been £428,507.
The general result of the ha,f-Seat's working on the
two divisions of the line, as compared with the pre-

ceding half .year, exhibited a decrease in the work-
ing expenses, an increase of 470,317 in the number

of passengers carried, and of 69,188 tons of goods
and minerals, and of £148,671 in the net earnings.
The Board were not yet in possession of the views
of the Government in India in reference to the line
intended to connect the Kurhurballee coalfields
with the main line. The bill conferring powers
on the company to raise additional capital received
the Royal assent on the 30th of June last. The
Board were of opinion that the capital already
issued would meet all sanctioned requirements on
the line to Delhi for some time to come. The
estimates of the total cost of the Jubbulpore
line appeared to have been made with great accu-
racy. Allowing for the alterations in the bridges
and for the provision of an ample supply of rolling
stock, the cost should not emceed £3,250,000, or
about £14,500 per mile, which, as anticipated by the
Board, was considerably less than that of the main
line. The awn of £2,000,000, originally subscribed
on account of these works was temporarily applied,
with the sanction of the shareholders and the &ere.,
tary of State to the main line ; and of the £2,000,000
raised subacquently to replace this amount, about
£1,000,000 had been repaid to the Jubbulpore line,
the balance having been required for the works on
the main line, which, at the time, the estim%te fur.
nished by the cnginetrs led the Board to b ,lieve
were fully provided for. The Board proposed to
take authority from the special meeting to raise
£1,200,000, the balance of capital, which it might
be estimated would be required for the Jubbulpore
line, but they did not propose to create this eddi,
tional,capital during the present year. In future

the revenue statement of the whole of the opened
lines would be published in one account. The new
audit department continued to work satisfactorily,
an d was now being extended over the whole line
with the most beneficial results. The revenue ac-
count for the half-year ending the 30th of June
showed that £492,169 had been received on the
Bengal division, and £244,498, or 49.68 per cent.,
expended, leaving a balance of £247,671. The re-
ceipts on the North-West Provinces division
amounted to £159,979, and the expenses to £79,772
or 49.87 per cent., leaving a balance of £80,207.
The aggregate receipts of the two divisions amounted
for the past half-year to £652,148, the expenses to
£324,270, and the balance to £327,878.