The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-07-26
INDIA.

the Rain Monsoon -Drouth, Famine, and
Death the Result.
correspondent of the London Times writing
from Calcutta under date of June IL, gives the
following graphic description of recent hurri-
cane
On Wednesday, the 9th the city and surround
ing country were swept by hurricane for some
twenty hours About sunset on the previous
day the high wind and rapid fall OF the barome-
ter, both in the Meteorological Reporters Office
and at Saugor Island, led to the belief that
cyclone was passing over Bengal along the usual
track which is between north-northeast and
north-northwest. Only three weeks before, on
the 10Th of May, a cyclone had thus passed,
doing little hurt to Calcutta, but violent to the
eastward that the Jessore district was wasted,
and the mail steamer Cheduba has not since been
heard of. About A. NJ. on the 9th it became
apparent that we were in for hurricane of no
ordinary violence, and the gusts of wind in
creased in force up to between 10 and II, when
they averaged 80 pounds to the square foot,
went up as high as 60 pounds or la miles
an hour. Few merchants and officials were
able to reach their offices, while their native en-
ployes could not attempt to do so. One of the
daily papers had two printers and the other
three. The roof of the Lock Hospital fell in,
killing two women and wOundng nine Others.
Trees were blown down, brick houses were in
Jured, and huts were generally levelled with the
ground, wherever they were not sheltered. The
shipping rode out with few casualties, but cargo
boats were swept away, and some lives mus
have been lost. The tide was unusually high
companied by heavy rain. At least eight inches
fell. Great as the violence and injury have
been, they are nothing to our experience of
1864 and 1867. In the latter year / had to barri-
cade with heavy tables the windows of a house
on the south bank of the Hooghly; and even
then three were blown in. Port Canning suf-
fered, but less than before. Barraclporc seems
to have escaped cheaply. The only crop which
has suffered is that of the plantain trees and the
pau leaf, which is chewed with the betel nut.
The leaf is grown on elevated sites, under close
wicker-work roofs, to keep out the sun. In
the course of a siX-milc drive along the
tance from Calcutta, found these
erections in almost every case PROSTATE. Not
plantain tree stood. Young and very exposed
trees had yielded, and in some cases the road
was impossible until the axe has been applied.
AS to the poor peoples huts, none had survived,
unless when under the lee of thick trees. Deep
tanks which were empty the day before were
filled to overfowing by the rain and drainage
from the road, and the greater part of the dis
trict near Serampore, which was inundated last
year, was under water. As the storm came dur
ing the day, the people were more cheerful than
in 1867, and to-day the sun is out, converting
Bengal into a vast vapor bath, so that the damage
is being rapidly repaired with bamboOs and mud.
Mr.. Blanford, the Meteorological Reporter, is of
opinion that the course of the cyclOue was from
about the mouth of the HurringOttah, past CAL
Cutta, at distance of some miles to the north
east, and therefore in Il nOrthwesterly direction.
The trains on the East Indian Railway were de-
layed in departure, from the impossibility of
communicating by river with Calcutta. We have
vet to hear from the Bay of Bengal.
There are few things so glorious as the burst
OF the rain monsoon on parched lndia-the
clouds rolling up from the sea in precipitous
masses, attended by all the artillery of heaven;
and, as they pass on to strike against the Hima-
layas discharging their treasures as they go, all
nature wakes to life, and becomes green as if
by magic.
Even at the price of cyclone, tracts like those
of Central India and Raipootana would gladly
welcome the Lord of Rain The uneXampled
heat there, as everywhere this year. has stricken
down many an English soldier and official, and
many an Asatic with apopeXy and cholera,
while famine has done no little evil in the native
States 1t will be some time till the deserts of
Western and the valleys of Central India get
relief. They are almost ut the point of rest where
the monsoOns pouring up from the Indian
Ocean and the Bay of Bengal exhaust them
selves and the rainfall, which is from 20 to 100
inches on the coasts, and from 100 to 250 on the
hills, shrinks into an annual sprinlling of from
five to twenty inches. Writing just n week ago,
n correspondent in the heart of the feudatory
territory tells me that ''things are as quiet us
sunstroke and cholera will admit" People
make few signs No doubt many have died
how many we shall, perhaps, never know
Villages il some of the States have been
swept by cholera, and the Marwarees, struggling
along the road on their return to RajpoOtana
have left their dead the highway. Many
cOrpses were thus a month ago, but now
there is lull. Towns in Holkar's territory
about IndOre, have suffered much. Death has
been moving all through .Bhopal also, and in the
Goona district the Tavages have been great. In
Bundelkund, where the famine has been sorest,
cholera has been milder than in other places;
but there is a time Of trial yet to be tded over
till the rain crops are ready. We have been
saved so many horrors which seemed inevitable
in the famine that was so nigh, that we may well
bear this burden, and strive by supplying food
and work to meet the future In the afflicted
districts charity has been great and general;
had il not been so, Rajpootana GwaliOr, and
Bundelkund would have been depOpulated.
Such is the opinion of the highest authorities on
the spot.
Alleged Loss of Ten Thousand Lives.
Another account says:-
The second of the two hurricanes which
visited Bengal-on the 10th of May and the 9th
of June-was very destructive, but far inferior
in violence to the terrible storms of 1864 and
1867. The plantains and the pau leaf, which is
chewed with the betel nut, were ruined, but the
ether crops escaped. AT Calcutta business was
entirely suspended. Few merchants were able
to reach their places of business, and those who
did found themselves minus their native EN-
plOyes
The roof of the Lock Hospital fell in, killing
two women and Wounding nine Others. Tree;
were blown down. brick houses were injured
and huts were generally leveled with the GROUND
wherever they were not sheltered. The ship
ping rode out with few casualties, but cargo
boats were swept away and some lives mus
have been lost. In the country the nuts OF th'
peasantry were blown down in all directions
except where they were protected by thlci
trees. No news of shipping disasters had com
ten thousand lives were lost by the first cyclon
that nf Nav 16