The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1876-12-14
The Great Cyclone in Bengal.

~ f'OGS |
the cyclone Of October 81. Storms are
frequent enough in those ATTITUDES, but
a Calcutta correspondent of the London
Times says that this storm was more
severe than any since the great cyclone
OF 1864, and that fuller details will
doubtless show it to have been even
more destructive than that memorable
tempest.
The October cyclone arose some
where in the Bay of Bengal, and, rush
ing northward in the track Of vessels
bound for Calcutta, dismasted many
large ships, and did much other dam
age. But this was trifing compared TO
what it did on shore. Calcutta itself
narrowly escaped its violence. At Chit
TAGGING it stranded every vessel in the
harbor, and almost destroyed the
town. Three large islands, Haitian,
Sundeep, and Dakhin, with numerous
smaller islands included in the Bacher-
gunge, Nookholly, and Chittagong dis.
%tricts, were entirely submerged 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 Megna. They
have been formed by the deposition oil
earth washed down by the sacred river
Gauges during its periodical inunda-
tons. The waters of the Ganges pour
into the Bay Of Bengal by fourteen
principal channels. Some Of these
channels are so narrow that the rigging
of ~coasting vessels Is often entangled in
the trees on the banks. Plentiful sup
plies of fish for the Calcutta market are
procured in the numerous water courses
of this region, although with difficulty
and danger, rs crocodiles AMI formida-
BILE serpents abound. Tho forests and
jungles are crowded with tigers and
other ferocious animals, and every
where reigns the deadly malaria
which makes the "Sunderbunds"-
as the low, marshy lands of the delta
are called, from being covered
with tho soondru, or sunder tree--the
most inhospitable and unhealthy, as it
is the hottest, part of British India.
Government has made vigorous efforts
TO clear and to people the Su~nderbunds,
It has offered special inducements to
settlers in this extensive maritime dis
trict and its adjacent islands, and re.
lays 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 clear.
ed, and timber, cotton, rice, sugar cane,
honey, and the mulberry tree for feed.
ing silk worms, have yielded rich re
turns to enterprise and labor. The
biggest Of the submerged islands, Da
kiln, was 800 square miles in extent, and
had a population of about 100000
Haitian and Sundeep together had
! about 100000 inhabitants.
, Up to II O'Clock on the night of Oct
81, according to n dispatch from Cal.
cutta, there were no signs of danger
but before midnight a wave swept ovei
the country to IL depth in many places
: of ~ feet, surprising the people in thei
. beds. Dense groves of cocoanut ant
palm trees around the villages enable,
many persons to save themselves b,
climbing among the branches, an,
. some took refuge on the roofs of thei
= houses, but the water burst the house
4 asunder and swept them out to sea
Some were thus carried across tn
channel, ten miles, to the ChlttagOng
: district, but a vast majority were neve
heard of again. The country is f~lat,an
!. almost every one persisted who faile
to reach the trees. More than on
% tree presented the queer spectacle ofte
of witnessed during an inundation of til
'r Gangcs-a "happy family" of sci
20 penis, birds, and beasts of diver
re and hostile kinds, waiting aloft for IL
n water to subside. All the cattle wei
drowned. The boats were swept ava
u and other means of communication d
t., stroyed. The Calcutta Government G,
IN zeHe says that "wherever the stor,
n. wave passed it is believed that not
third of the population survived. III
Islands have barely one. fourth of the
OF former inhabitants" The latest ofici
tn estimates, in a report by Sir Richal
Temple, Lieutenant-G Governor of Be
he gal, put the total loss of life at 250,OO
ny In some places the stencil from Il
r, putrefying bodies is insufferable, and
III general outbreak of the cholera, viii,
W, has already appeared in Nookholly,
n expected. Government is Fastening
as its duty of relieving the sore distre
10 which prevails among the survivors
the cyclone.
9" Remoteness lessons the shock of t
" direst disasters, and India still seems I
+" remote ever in this day Of triumph I
' steam and for the electric telegrap
NY These have almost annihilated time a
y" space, so that Cooks travellers, who 9
nicknamed ''globe trotters" in the Ea
can circumnavigate the earth in thu
months; and the earliest news Of I
Bengal cyclone came from Calcutta
London and New York in less than
h fortnight. 1t was received, howev
-n with comparative indifference, becar
the scene of the tragedy is so disant,a
'u so little is known Of the victims a
their whereabouts, most Of the localit
that suffered not even being named
the map. Then there were so ms
y victims as to leave only
~ same vague, confused notion Of
aggregate loss of life which our limi
." conceptive faculties allow OF that
casioned by a battle, an earthquake
, famine, pr a pestilence, or of the u
'ieu number of deaths during an b
MO throughout the world. Moreover, tn