The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-10 00:00:00

TILE LATE STORM IN TUE NORTH.

(From the Inverness Courier.)
This northern district has been visited by one of
the severest storms or hurricanes ever remembered.
About two o'clock on Wednesday morning a gale
from the south-west set in, accompanied with rain,
and it rose rapidly with destructive fury, seeming
in a few minutes to blow from every point of the
compass. During the forenoon the storm raged,
and though afterwards moderated at intervals,
there were heavy squalls and rain throughout the
whole day. Every district has suffered from this
tempest. Trees have been thrown down or torn up
by the roots, fences scattered about, and many
buildings unroofed and injured or destroyed. In
town it was dangerous to walk the streets, as slates,
chimney cans, and fragments of buildings were
falling in all directions. In exposed situations,
windows were broken or blown in, and scarcely a
single garden has escaped. Trees that had stood
the blasts of a century or more were thrown
down, and the loss and damage in this respect are
incalculable. The Ness islands have been deprived
of some of their finest standard trees, and the plan-
tations on both sides of the river and loch have been
woefully thinned. The roads in many places were
impassable from fallen timber. At Beaufort, the
seat of Lord Lovat, at Belladrum, Conen, Brahan,
Coul, Never, Invergordon Castle, Newmore, Kin-
craig, and Balnagown—all places finely wooded—
great and irreparable damage has been done ; and
no doubt similar injury has been inflicted on the
more northern woods and pleasure-grounds.
At Kessock Ferry it was found impossible for
several hours to put out a boat, and the Defiance
coach from the North was detained two hours by
the state of the roads, blocked up with fallen tim-
ber, at Novar and about Conan House. On the
western lochs, Captain Turner reports that the
storm was greater than he had witnessed during
the last 30 years. The waters of Loch Lochy
resembled a stormy sea, and the spray was carried
to an immense height. A report was current here
that the Dundalk steamer had been lost in the
Firth, but she gallantly weathered the gale, and
appeared at Thornbush Pier about her usual time.
Our telegraphic communication was cut off by ac-
cidents at Nairn and Brodie. At the former three
of the poles were thrown down, and at Brodie a
large tree fell across the line. The injury, however,
was speedily repaired.
In farm yards the stacks have been in most in-
stance uncovered or thrown down. Our Invergor-
den correspondent writes—" Very considerable da-
mage has been done in this neighbourhood.
Thatched houses, doors, windows, wooden sheds,
timber-yards, &c., suffered ; but the most serious
injury has been done in the corn-yards. We hear
on all sides of corn and hay-stacks. being literally
turned over and scattered about; while the injury
done to valuable standing timber at all our gen-
tlemen's seats is said to be unprecedented. Large
trees are lying across the roads. A portion of
the ornamented gable of the Free Church has been
blown down. During the violence of the gale an
accident occurred to Mr. Maclennan, of the Victoria
Inn. He was attempting to secure the thatch of
an outhouse, when he was precipitated to the
ground, and suffered a compound fracture of the
right leg."
From Contin, Tain, and other places, we have
similar accounts as to the loss in farm-yards, woods,
and gardens. The damage to the growing and
outstanding crops must be proportionately great,
and every district has its tale of loss and suffering.
At sea, we fear, still more serious accidents must
have occurred. Unfortunately, we have already a
record of calamities. A lighter belonging to Mr.
Duffus, Nairn, sailed for Rosehearty, with two
hands on board. " During the night of the
storm," says the Nairn Telegraph, " she was seen
to capsize at Speymouth, within 50 yards of the
shore, and the two men were lost. Their names
were David Foreman and William Bill, both
belonging to Nairn. Foreman leaves a wife and
family to lament his loss ; Bill was a young
man unmarried. Another Nairn boat, belong-
ing to Mr. John Ross, innkeeper, manned by
himself and Alexander Jack and David Jack, two
brothers, from Nairn, while returning from Find-
horn, were also taken in the storm and driven into
Spey Bay, where the sail having been blown away,
the boat was driven ashore, and they were saved
by Lossiemouth fishermen. Two schooners from
Lossiemouth dragged their anchors and went ashore
at Speymouth, one on the beach, crew safe ; the
other capsized, hull separated from stern, and crew
of six lost. The latter ship and crew belonged to
Lossiemouth. We could not ascertain the names
of the ill-fated vessels. A sloop is ashore at Camp..
beltown. The crew were landed by the fishermen
there."
Our Strathspey correspondent describes the devas-
tation in that quarter as mest disastrous. The
greater part of the crops is still uncut; and all is
levelled to the ground. Stacks of corn and hay were
overturned ; sheds, outhouses, fences, and other ex-
posed property, are much injured. But the most
marked damage is done to the woods. The fine old
trees on the lawn and park at Ballindalloch, so
highly valued by the proprietor, are mostly thrown
down, and great damage done to Sir George Mac-
pherson Grant's woods at Cragganmore. The wood
here was full grown large timber, but the trees fell
like straws before the hurricane, and a surface of
from six to eight acres, covered perhaps by 2,000
trees, is one great wreck. In the counties of Nairn
and Moray the damage is also universal—woods
and farms being devastated.
Our Aberdeen correspondent sends us the follow-
county, and coast of Aberdeen have
follow-
ing
Wednesday), been visited with a storm of
wind and rain, more terrific and destructive than
to-day Tayhe(
has been experienced in this quarter during the
a perfect hurricane from the west, and when
city,
last dozen years. Morning broke with the gale
blowing
came fairly in it revealed the destruction
nueeYd -cbalnos;
bddloaoynwlei
in a few hours in the streets, actually littered
yTphleaewesinwditheocnhtiimn tiinlges,fiselracteelsy, and
l
g •
forenoon ; the work of destruction is still going on
throughout the city
in sign-boards being torn
down, high chimneys falling, the humble and older
houses deprived of their covering,
inlamssan
newbuildings
in the course of • • erection sharing much the same
fate, while whole
. . ranges of palings, as also lofty
attic windows, dashing
, come on the ground. Nor
was the gale less sparing of the forest and floral
beauties of the town. Trees and shrubs planted
in favourite squares and other spots, have been
ruthlessly broken, or torn up by the roots, while a
number of gardens have likewise fared badly.
About the harbour there was of course a great deal
of anxiety, and not without cause. The steamer
Ben my Chree, which had arrived from Inverness
late the previous evening, sailed again for Edin-
burgh during the night, but only proceeded as far
south as Bervie, when the captain found it neces-
sary, from the violence of the gale and the state of
the sea, to turn back. Happily, the steamer was
able to make the harbour, but not before some 50
of the sheep on board had perished. Several of
the vessels at the quay side broke their moorings,
and pitched heavily against each other, doing
considerable damage to sterns and bows, not-
withstanding the crews being at their posts early.
Two ships that anchored a short distance out
in the bay, not deeming it prudent to venture tak-
ing the harbour, were seen dragging their anchors
about wildly, but the wind being fortunately for
them, off shore—W. and N.-W.—it was presumed
they would be able to ride the gale out safely. In
the afternoon tidings came from the country that
the storm had been quite as severe there as in town.
Great trees, 70 and 80 feet in height, and the
growth of as many years, had snapped under the
force of the gale or been uprooted. Farmers also,
it is feared, will be heavy sufferers by the storm,
the stacks in the farm-yards being much injured in
not a few districts, while the sheaves which hap-
pened to be in stook were seer • •along the
fields
fields like feathers. Fortunately,
so far as yet
known, there has been no cases of material personal
injury, the only accidents reported at the police-
office consisting of one or two slight hurts from the
falling of tiles and the throwing down of aged per-
sons in the streets, It is to be hoped the after in-
telligence of the doings of the gale may not prove
more serious. Late at night the wind and rain
continued high and heavy."