surprised in their sleep. While this wave was ascending the Hooghly, and spreading over the neighboring districts, a portion of the same wave seems to have struck the coast near Chittagong, and, having swept along the same, to have overflowed the islands of Shahabazpore and Hattia from the rear. And this is the cause of the fearful devastation it wrought, for we shall not err if we suppose waves coming from two opposite directions to have met at these islands The number of human victims in the catastrophe of 1864 was nearly doubled in consequence of the diseases produced by the multitude of unburied dead bodies, and which carried off 30,000 souls. Hardly four weeks after the Hooghly catastrophe of 1864, namely, on November 5th, the coast at Masulipatam, on the Kistnah—a locality specially adapted for concentrating the force of the storm-wave and intensifying its powers of destruction—was overflowed and 35,000 lives were lost. Three years later, on November 1, 1867, the Calcutta district was again visited; but, fortunately, on this occasion only 1,000 lives were lost, though 30,000 huts of the natives were swept away. But of all the disasters of this kind which have occurred prior to 1876, that of June 6, 1822, was the most appalling and destructive, and the only one to be compared with that of last October. As is shown by Beveridge in his recently-published work on Bacarganch, the cyclone had a very wide track, extending far inland on the east, and beyond Calcutta to the west. The wave which overflowed the mouths of the Ganges and the adjoining coasts fortunately appeared early in the evening, and the people were somewhat prepared for it; nevertheless, 100,000 human beings lost their lives, and an equal number of cattle, and the damage otherwise exceeded 1,000,000 rupees.
Concerning the latest deplorable catastrophe, we possess the following data: Down to 11 p. m. there was no sign of impending danger; before midnight the storm burst suddenly, and without warning, surprising the people in their beds and dwellings. Three storm-waves swept over an area of 3,000 square miles, containing a population of 1,000,000 souls. In a few minutes, 215,000 human beings were swept off by the waters, and there perished. This estimate, however, is probably far too low; for nearly all the officials from whom authentic information might have been obtained themselves perished in the flood, and many villages are known to have lost seventy per cent, of their inhabitants. This is undoubtedly the gravest calamity ever caused by water. Three great islands, and innumerable small ones, were entirely swept by the flood, as also the mainland, over an area of five or six miles in length by about four miles in width. These islands all lie near the mouth of the Meghna, a river formed by the union of the Ganges with the Brahmapootra. The largest of the islands—Dakhin Shahabazpore—is 800 miles in circumference, and had 240,000 inhabitants, while the other two great islands—Hattia and Sundney—had in all about 100,000 inhabi-
