Litchfield enquirer., 1881-11-17

THE GREAT STORM IN ENGLAND. The g ortn of Friday. Oc ober l4tb, which appear ed sO suddenly, sped its course over NUrth- western Europe sI rapidly. aud involved so wide a region in it's destructive violence, will be long remembered for the ;well-iiigh unpar- alleled loss of human life which il OccasiOned among the fishing population between the Forth and the Tweed. In London, which was some distance from the storm centre. the lowest barometer occurred at a. m, and
 was only 29 086 inches. At Edinburgh, over which the Centre passed. the barometer at the same hour fell tO 28. 425 inches. On Saturday morning the centre of the storm had advanced fully 600 miles to eastward. being at tlIe daily average of itwenty-6v miles an, hour, and then near the southwest angle of Lake Wener in Sweden. Here the lowest barometer was about 28. 600 inches, whilst at the satneltime to westward at Vaentia pressure had arisen to 30. 22O inches, thus giving for the sO'itliern shores of the North, Sea steep gradients for northwest winps, winch, with the high seas they raised, proved very deslructive 10 those coasts The anticyclone indicated by the high barometer following in the wake of the storm was accompanied with temperatures un-
 usually low for the seasUn. z Snowfalls uf soine depth occurred in many districts, dping no little damage to green crops and in later districts to grain crops still standing in the
 fields. s53qusq g sao s-.a sfIssu i9ss-il The weather on Friday morning was very deceptive. In Midlothian, shortly after s o'clock, The clouds broke up and the sun shone
 in sky rapidly clearing of clouds. SOOB, however, change commenced, and within an
 hour, behind low bank of darkish. looking clouds in the northern horizon. long bank of ashv, leaden-hued 0minous clouds began 10 appear. and rose higher in the sky. In a brief space of lime the whole of the sky wasover cast ,, and a darkness quickly followed SD great as tO render gas necessary in reading tue mOr- ming newspaper. It was remarked ut tbe time that ihe darkness lasted three or four
 times longer than is uslally ihe case with ihe 1 darkness which is observed Immediately to he followed hy complete change of wind When it passed away, the wind had changed
 from southwest 10 northeast and the temper
 ature fallen, and thereafter the wind gradually
 rose to a gale. On the other hand, ol ihs Berwickshre coast, where l30 fishermen per-
 ished the darkness was denser and more threatening. and almost simultaneously with
 it's approach a hurricane broke out,wth de-
 vouring energy which bore everything before it, and, exclusively as 1t were. instantly rose to height which, judging from actual facts related by the fishermen who escaped and tbe spectators on the shore. can perlnps only be paralleled in Great Britain in recent years bv the Edinburgh hurricane of January 24, 1865. On land many lives were lost in London and elsewhere, and in all parts of the country chimney stacks, roofs and walls were blown down, telegraph lines were wrecked, and tens of thousands of the finest trees were snapped
 4sunder and leyelIed with the ground When there has been time to collect the records of this storm, 1t will be found, says Nature, to have been one of the most destructive to life and property in tue British Islands in the memory of the present generations.