The Sun.
London, England, 1829-08-06 00:00:00

STORMS IN FRANCE.

It is unhappily too true, that the hurricanes
and continual rains have, since the first fortnight
of the present month, ravaged a great part of
France. Such was the violence of these hurri-
canes at Beziers, that at some distance from the
town walls of two feet and a half in thickness
were overthrown, though they were fastened to-
gether by beams strengthened with iron. The
same phenomenon has produced disastrous effects
also at Lyons, Geneva, and the Chaux de Fonds,
in the straights of the Jura. The night of the
Bth and 9th of July was disastrous for the greater
part of Switzerland, and the wind was the most
Violent ever known in that country. Letters
from Limoges
.say, that the Bth of July was a
day fatal to the agriculture of that department.
Towards the twilight, a cloud of hail, blown by
an impetuous wind, and mixed with torrents of
rain, ravaged fifteen communes. Every where
under the course of this devastating meteor, the
crops of every sort were destroyed. The grass,
ready to be mowed, was buried under the soil ;
the corn and hemp cut down to the ground, the
trees stripped of their branches, the roofs of
houses beaten down, and the windows broken.
The hailstones were of an uncommon size ;
some persons who could not find shelter were
wounded by them, and animals left in the open
fields perished under their blows.
Another violent storm took place on the night
of the 15th and 16th of July, in the departments
of the Aube and the Meuse, and the other de-
partments in the vicinity of Belgium. A letter
from Arcis thus describes it :—" On the 15th
instant, at ten o'clock at night, a dreadful storm
fell on our town and its neighbourhood. Wind,
rain, thunder, and hail, seemed to be struggling
with each other to complete the ruin of our
agriculturists. The hailstones were uncommonly
large, bearing generally the size and shape of
eggs, with rough points on them. A few mo-
ments destroyed the hope of a fine and abundant
harvest. In eight communes there is now nei-
ther grain nor straw, nor forage of any kind ; in
a word, no kind of crop. Desolation is at its
height ; even the trees bear traces of this fright-
ful tempest ; many are stripped of their foliage,
the branches broken off, and barked ; even the
birds and the game have been killed by the hail."
Another letter adds, that for fifty years nobody
has witnessed so terrible a hurricane. Heaved
was on fire, and the thunder was breaking the
clouds, peal after peal. The windows and slates
of almost all the houses were damaged. Many
roofs were carried away, but what is still more
deplorable and distressing, is the total destruc-
tion of the harvest in eight or ten communes.
During the night of the 15th and 16th instant,
a violent storm, coming from the north-west,
burst over Bar-sur-Aube. For some hours a
continual thunder was heard ; the horizon was
on fire and a torrent of rain mixed with hail was
falling. The neighbouring communes suffered
severely from this storm ; the vines in five or six
of them were torn to pieces by the hail, the
hemp destroyed, and the corn scattered. At one
farm every window was broken ; there can be at
present no estimate of the damage ; and this
disaster is the more lamentable as the district had
already suffered greatly from the complete stag-
nation in the wine trade; this is a misfortune
the more to increase its wretchedness. The
commune of Viviers, situated in a very narrow
valley, has been almost desolated by the torrents
that rolled down from the neighbouring hills.
One house was washed away by the waters and
fell on an unfortunate woman, whose dread of
the thunder had kept her at home. At Erry
more than three leagues of land have been ren-
dered waste, and present now only the dreary ap-
pearance of desolation. The river Armance,
which overflowed the plain, swept away all the
hay which had been cut the evening before.
The storm spread itself towards Sens, where we
may presume it has caused great havoc.
On the same night, the storm burst on the
town of Bar-sur-Seine and its neighbourhood.
From half-past nine till half-past twelve at mid-
night the heavens, apparently on fire, presented
an extraordinary spectacle ; flashes of lightning
furrowed the atmosphere without intermission,
and claps of thunder roared without ceasing.
The hail that fell did little harm, but in some
communes the hemp was cut away and the corn
has suffered. The wind was very powerful ;
some enormous walnut trees were torn up by the
roots. At two o'clock in the morning the storm
recommenced ; torrents of rain descended, and
the plain. from St. Dezier to Chancenay was
covered with water. It is reported that the
storm was more violent still on the side of Trois
Fontanes. It visited the village of Neuveglize,
in Belgium, on the 14th, between five and six
o'clock in the evening. All the crops were
spoiled by the hailstones, many of which weighed
I three ounces ; a considerable number of windows
I were broken ; roofs and entire buildings were
carried away by the force of the wind, and it is
reckoned that three hundred trees have been
rooted up in this single commune.