The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1876-12-07
THE GREAT CYCLONE IN BENGAL.
Wave after Wave Sweeps Over the Islands
The Terrible Loss of Life.

Wave after Wave Sweeps Over the Islands
The Terrible Loss of Life.
Later news from southeastern Bengal
confirms previous rumors of immense
loss Of life and property occasioued by
th5 cyclone of Oct. 81. Storms are fire.
quent enough in those latitudes, but a
Calcutta correspondent of the London
Times says that this storm was more Sc
we're than any since the great cyclone of
1864, and that fuller details will doubt
less show it to have been even more
destructive than that memorable tenn
pest.
The October cyclone arose somewhere
in the bay of Bengal, and rushipg north
ward in the track of vessels bound for
Calcutta, dismasted many large chips,
and did much other damage. But this
was trifiing compared TO what it did on
shore. Calcutta itself narrowly escaped
its violence. At Chittsgong it stranded
every vessel in tho harbor, and almost
destroyed the town. Three large islands,
Hattiah, Sundeep, and Dakhiu, with
numerous smaller islands included in
the Bachergunge, Nookholly, and Chit
tagong districts, were entirely submerg-
ed by the storm wave, as was also the
main land for five or six miles inland.
These islands are situated in or near
the estuary of the river Mogna. They
have been formed by tho deposition of
earth washed down by the sacred river
Ganges during its periodical inunda-
tions. The waters of the Ganges pour
into the bay of Bengal by fourteen prin-
cipal channels. Some of these channels
are SO narrow that the rigging of coast
ing vessels is often entangled in the
trees on the banks. Plentiful supplies
OF fish for the Calcutta market are pro-
cured i'll the numerous water courses Of
this region, although with difficulty and
danger, ae crocodiles and formidable
serpents abound. The forests and jun
giles are crowded with tigers and other
ferocio1s animals, and everywhere reiens
the deadly malaria which makes the
Sundersbunds AS the low, marshy
lands of the delta are called, from being
covered with the soondru, or sunder
tree-the most iphospitable and un-
healthy, as it is the hottest part of Brit
ish India. Government has made Wig
orous efforts to clear and to people the
Sunderbunds. It has offered special
inducements to settlers in this extensive
maritime district and its adjacent islands,
and relays of fresh victims to accident
and disease have been tempted there to
Fill up the gaps left by their predecessors.
A large portion of land has been cleared,
and timber, cotton, rice, sugar cane,
honey, and the mulberry tree for 'eeding
silk worms, have yielded rich returns to
enterprise and labor. Tho biggest of
the submerged islands, Dakhin, was 800
square miles in extent, and had popu-
lation of about 100000. Hattiah and
Sundeep together had about 100000 in
habitants.
Up to eleven o'clock on the night of
Oct. 81, according to a dispatch from
Calcutta, there were no signs of danger;
but before midnight wave swept over
the country to O depth in many places
of twenty feet, surprising people in
their beds. Dense groves of cocoanut
and palm trees around the villages en-
abled many persons to savo themselves
by climbing among the branches, and
some took refuge on the roofs of their
houses, but the water burst the houses
asunder and swept them out to sea.
Some were thus carried across the chan
mel, ten miles, to the Chittagong dis.
trict, but vast majority were never
heard Of again. The country is fiat,
and almost every one perished who fail.
ed to reach the trees. More than ono
tree presented the queer spectacle often
witnessed during an inundation of the
Ganges-a "happy family" of ser
pents, birds, and beasts of divers and
hostile kinds, waiting aloft for tho water
to subside. AL the cattle were drown
ed. The boats We're swept away an6
other means of communication destroy
ed. The Calcutta Government Gazette
says that wherever the storm wave
passed it is believed that not third O
the population survived. The island,
have barely one-fourth of their former
inhabitants" The latest official esti
mates, in a report by Sir Richard TEN
pie, lieutenant governor of Bengal, pu
the total loss of life at $50, 200. In som,
places the stencil from the putrefyins
bodies is insufferable, and o genera
outbreak of the cholera, which has al
ready appeared in Nookholly, is expect
ed. Government is fastening to it
duty of relieving the sore distress
which prevails among the survivors o
the cyclone.
Remoteness lessons the shock OF th
direst disaster, aud India still seems ia
remote even III this day of triumph TO
steam and for the electric telegra oh
These have almost annihilated time an,
space, so that Cooks travellers, who ar
nicknamed "globe trotters" in tn
East, can circumnaVigate the earth il
three months; and the earliest news G
the Bengal cyclone came from Calcutt
to London and New York in less than
fortnight. It was received, however
with comparative indifference, becaus
the scene of the tragedy is so distant
and SO little is known of the victims ar
their whereabouts, most OF the localitie
that suffered not even being named o
the map. Then there were SO man
victims as to leave only the same vague
confused notion of an aggregate loss c
life which our limited conceptive facu
ties allow of that occasioned by a bal
tie, an earthquake, famine, or pest
lence, or of the total number of death
during an hour throughout the worlG
Moreover, there are limitations to hi
man sympathy as we'll as to human n
sponsibiiity. AS the eyelid protects th
eye, merciful film wells and shields ou
perception of human woes in the gross
But, on the other hand, the fact tina
: both in England and in the Unite
States, India is regarded as a favorit
field for missionary effort, will Great
an interest regarding the fate Of thos
who were exposed to the fury of til
cyclone which otherwise would hardl