, 1884-05-17

hurricane in the tropics. There is an in.
tensity of will in the latter, an impression
Of conscious malignity wholly wanting III
the former. A gale cannot rouse your lem
per az q typloon will. When, however,
lie expresses this opinion in public. az he
invariably does, and is challenged about
it by neighbours, who are vexed by his
assumption Of special and superior ex-
perience, he is often ~perplexed to give
evidence Of his thesis, and usually ends by
some anecdOte of an isolated Lr exception
al occurrence, which his neighbours be-
lieve to be a gross exaggeratiOn, or ever
a pure invention. How, indeed, is the
poor traveller to prove his case? The
broad facts revealed under crOSs-examina-
ti0n do not seem to establish his theory,
and the special facts which would esta.
bliSh it are either diSbelieved, or If the
evidence is too strOng-aS, for instance,
the evidence for the awful weight Of q
storm iS-are set down as being
somehow beside tie question. The facts
that Il stOrm-wavt in Europe seldom does
more than destroy a lefty, and that a
storm-Wave on the night of October 31St
1876, diu in the Bay OF Bengal sweep a
large country, and destroy nearly half q
million Of human beings, are not fairly
cOntraSted, but the tropical disaster IS
set down almost entirely to differences in
the lie Of HE soil. Asked if the hurricane
sweeps away hlick houses, the traveller is
obliged TO say mo-" the patent fact
being that cities in Asia, if built Of stone or
brick, stand through ages OF tempest, just
as they do here. European houses are no
more blown down in Calcutta, or Madras,
or Hong Kong, than they are blown down
in London or Dover; while native StruC-
lures, all promimenceS, pillars, open halls,
and projecting roofs, live on as il architects
never heard OF wind. A meteOr0lOGist
would say that a Burmese pagOda was
often built purpoSely to catch wind, but
the hurricanes OF q century sweep over it,
and the temple stands, and the priests
regard its strength. as quite sufficient.
Thousands Of temples in Bengal have pro-
jecting caves, which a cyclone ought to
lift into the air, but does not. If the
storms are so awful, why does not Calcut-
tn, which is Of all brick, and not much
better built to resist wind than II London
suburb, per h once a Yearf 1t the ira
weller says all roofs are made tat, lest the
wind should tear them OFT, he Is told that
this is for anUther reason, to allow OF a
secluded yet airy promenade; and, indeed,
the statement is not worth much, tor
buildings without flat roofs stand the gales
very well. Ii he says the wind can blow
shutters inwardS, he is told that the hinges
must be bad; and if he points to the trees
levellrd by the storm, he is requested to
go into Windsor Great Park just after a
gale, and asked if a jungle or forest is ever
cleared totally away. 1t never is, and
therein lies enc more perplexity. Why,
under the worst tropical hurricane, does
so much survive? Bengal Proper, for
instance, is swept every two or three years
Ivy a true cyclone, before which, as 1t
seems to those who see it, nothing can live,
which strikes paths through the forest as
broad and visible as if a Steam-rOller
driven by supernatural force had passed
crashing along, and which blows men and
cattle eff lhcir feet as II they were chips.
Yet Bengal ia the same districts is one
hardly broken mass Of orchards or fruit
~iunglts, and they are rarely hurt, so rarely,
that t~ruit-cultule goes on from decade to
decade rs a safe and profitable industry.
IN 1850, the writer saw a mighty cedar
bodily lifted into the air, and next day
examined a section Of the broken trunk,
in which all fibreS had been twisted, yet a
fruit orchard thirty yards off almost en-
tilely escaped. How could that fact,
which is not only past denial, but past
discussion, be true, if the cyclones OF Ben
gal were so dreadful as they are described
to be-
$50