Great Gales

The most terrible storm which hns, perhaps, over occurred is that whloh has been eiüled the Grcnt Storm. It oecurred, or rather its worst effects were experienoed, on Oct. 10, 1780. Generated, pïobably, in inid-Atlaniie, not f ar fïOflJ the equator, it vas first. feit in Barbados, Where trees and hottses Were blown down. Capt, MfturV, in his " Ph.Vsical Gcograph-V of Hie Sea," rívch a rather exaggerated account of the effects produoed by this storm in Barbados, apparentiy i'rom memory - some of the details being li&e, but not quite the same as thoso actually recorded. He s;ivs " the buik was blown trom the trees, and the fruit af the earth destroyed; the very Sóttom and depths of the sea were uprooted - forts and castles were washed away, and their groat guns earried in the air uke obaff." The bark of trees was removed, but it is believed rather through the effects of electrie action than bj the power of the wind. Cannon, also, were driven along the battorie, and fluug over into the fOSee, but not " earried in the air like ehan." At Martimqilc the storm overtook a French transport fieet, and entirely destroyed it. Tnere were forty vessels, eonveying 4,000 soldiers, and the Governor of Martinique reported their fate t the Frenoh Government in three words - " The vessels disappeared. " Nine thousand persons pejrislied at Martinique, and 1,01)0 at 5t. l'ierre, where not a house was loft standing. St. Domingo, Ht. Vincent, St. EtUtache. and Porro Rico Were next Visited and ilcistated, while scnrct-lv a single vessel Dear this part of the cycione's truck was afloal on Oet, 11. At Port Eoyal the Oathedral, se ven elmrehes, and 1,400 houses were blown down, and 1,600 sick and woiinded persons were buricd bèneath the ruinsof í the hospital. At the Bermudas fifty British ships were driven ashore, two : line-of-battle ships went down at sea, and 22,000 persons perished. Perhaps the most lvniarkable ctïects of the utorm in this portioü of its eoitrse were eipeïienced in the Leeward Isles. The hurricane drove a 12-pounder cannon a distanoe of 400 feet. Xhose who lived in the Government Building took refuge in the central part, where cdroulac walls, nearly a yard thick, seemed to all'oril promiBe of aaf ety . But at 11:30 o'olock the wind had broken down parta of these walls, and liftcd off the roof. TVrrifled, they sought refuge in the, ceUaxage, but before long the water had risen there to the height of more than a yard, and they were driven into the battery, where they placed themselves behind the heavier i canuons, Bome of which were driven trom their pliices by the force of the wind. When day brok'e the country looked as if ! i it had been blasted by fire; not a leaf, acaree even a braneh, remained upon the trees. The Great Storm of 1780 must not be confounded with the storm remembezed fór manv yenrs in Great Britaiu as the i Great Storm. Tlie latter ooourred on I Nov. 2(, 1703, and its worst effeets were experienced not as usual in the tropics, blit in Western Europe. No other tempest was ever in this country the occasion of a l'arliamentary address or of a public fast. Whole fleeta had been cast ! away. Largo mansión liad been blown down. One prelate had been buried beneath the ruina of lus palaco. London and Bristol had presentad the appeni1auce of eities jast sucked. Hundredfl of families wore stillinmourning. Tlioprostrate trunks of largo trees, and the ruins of houses, still attosted, in all the south ern counties, the fury of the blast, ' One of the most striking events connected with this temblé storm was the destrnction of the Eddystone lighthouse. Winstanley, the architect of tho first Eddystone lighthonse, was confident that it conld resist tho fiercest storm which ever blew, and expressed a : hope that he might be in it when such a storm raged. On Nov. '20 he arrrved j with a party of men who woro engaged i to repair the building. The Grent Storm soon after bogan to blow, and raged throughout the night. On the moming of Üie 27th no trace of the lighthouse was to be seen.