The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1877-01-18
THE CYCLONE IN INDIA.
What an English Gentleman Tells Us of the
Sad Affair.


A minute by Sir r. Temple, dated the
twenty-first of November, has been pub
lished respecting the effects of the late
cyclone and storm-wave in Eastern Ben
gal. The minute says
Proceeding to Noakally on my or
binary tour, L heard that disaster had
happened in the highly cultivated and
thickly inhabited islands at the mouth OF
the Megna, viz. Sundeep, Hattia, Shah
buzpore, and on both coasts of the great
river. cut short my visit to Noakally,
and fastened to the points where it was
probable the worst distress must have
been. 1 visited the islands named and
the western coast of the river district OF
Backergunge. In all the localities visit.
ed took the number in each of the vii
lagos and had the precise mortality in
each house ascertained i'll my presence
on the spot, to prevent the possibility OF
deception. From authentic data thus
| obtained | was able to check the local
estimates and measure the actual mis-
chief done.
"The estimate of the probable num-
Der of lives lost, nearly all by drowning,
has been prepared by Mr. Beverley and
myself on our own data, compared with
local reports, oral and written, and based
ON returns of the last census. We APP
prehend that in an area of 5000 square
miles ], ,1G2,000 persons had been sud
denly thrown more or less in danger, of
whom 215, 900 must have perished; this
is is only an estimate; the exact number
is not known yet, and perhaps never will
be. The storm wave rose to height OF
ten or twenty feet. The Noakally peo-
pie think it came from the sea up the
Megna with salt water, and then that the
cyclone turned it round and rolled the
fresh water of the river down; the refu-
ence caused the piling up of fresh and
salt water which rushed over the sur
rounding districts; drowned bodies were
carried great distances; corpses begun to
putrefy before the waters retired.
1.-The Mohammedan population have
no cremation, and the masses of corrup-
ton Of human and animal bodies were
frequent, presenting a sickening specta-
Gle. Many corpses were seen at sea; the
bodies of living and dead were borne
across the arm. of the sea from Sundeep
TO Chittagong, the former clinging to the
roofs of their own houses. The force of
the inundation appears to have lasted
from midnight to two o'clock in the
morning. BY daybreak there was much
subsistence of the food, and by noon the
survivors came down from the trees
and regained terra .f,D,d, and must have
been foodless and shelterless all that day
and the next. They then got out the
stores of buried grain and dried it; CO.
coanuts also afforded them n sustenance.
There was much trouble about drinking
water at first, but the tanks must have
speedily recovered from brackishness, as
the water was generally good when we
tasted it, though in many cases rendered
bad by having putrid corpses i'll the
tanks.
"No estimate can be formed Of the
number of cattle lost the loss is bad for
the people, but fortunately there is no
immediate demand for plowing their
fields. At the time of my visit there was
no severe epidemic save round Noakally
L have since heard that cholera has
broken out on the Chittagong coast and
on the east side of the Megna. The first
day OF two after the disaster there were
some attempts at plundering and lawless-
ness, but they were promptly suppress
ell. Most of the local native officials
We're drowned. When the storm burst
the abundance of the rice crop ripenine
was the well known Deltaic rice crop,
which is far beyond the demands of the
local consumption and which affords
quantities in thousands of tons for ex-
portation; of this great part is lost
but if even One-third be saved it viii
afford sufficient for local consumption.
"The boats, great and small, which
constitute the only means of carriage
We're all lost. The Noakally authorities
were thus bereft Of resources for moving
across the floods, and this was very
hard case on the Hattia island, where the
people were three days succorless. In
the Backergunge district the boats Were
saved, but much wealth was lost almost
entirely, in the form Of agricultural crops
or cattle. With the exception of Dow.
lutkhan, trading town, which was clean
destroyed, eight thousand inhabitants, q
quarter of the number, perished. On
approaching it we steamed for two miles
through the creek; the banks were
strewn with human bodies. ."-Londol
Daily 7elegraph.