y
in this never-to-be-forgotten storm which nearly overwhelmed Calcutta
in October 1864, and shook it literally to its very foundations; but
no pen can adequately visualise the picture of awful desolation and
ruin that it wrought and left behind in its terribly devastating
course.

_[The pictures illustrating this chapter are from a collection in the
possession of Messrs. Thacker, Spink & Co_.]

THE CYCLONE OF 1867.

This happened about a month later than that of 1864, on the 1st
November, 1867, and long past the usual period for storms of this
violent nature. On this occasion I was occupying the top flat of what
was then 12, Hastings Street, Colvin Ghat, next door to the offices of
Grindlay & Co., and on the site of the building recently erected by
Cox & Co. as a storing warehouse. It was a very old shaky kind of
house of three storeys having an insecure-looking, narrow strip of
railed-in wooden verandah skirting the whole length of the southern
portion of the second and third flats, which many people now in
Calcutta will doubtless recollect.

[Illustration: Some effects of the Cyclone at Garden Reach]

[Illustration: _Photo. by Bourne & Shepherd_ Old view of Government
House, showing Scott Thomson's corner.]

It was by no means the sort of place one would choose to brave the
terrors of a cyclone, and it also had the great disadvantage, by
reason of its very exposed position, of being open to attack from all
points of the compass.

The storm commenced earlier than that of 1864, late in the afternoon,
and just about dusk appearances were so threatening that I went
downstairs, with the intention of going outside to ascertain, if
possible, whether it was likely to develop into a _pucca_ cyclone or
not. When I got there I found the wind was sweeping past the entrance
in such fearfully violent gusts as to make it quite impossible for me
to venture outside into the street, and I also detected that ominously
sinister, weird and moaning sound that unmistakably warned me of the
impending fact that a cyclone of considerable intensity was rapidly
approaching. I immediately returned to my rooms and made everything as
secure as I could for withstanding the fury of the storm. I had
invited that evening a party of friends to dinner and to play whist
afterwards, and they duly turned up to time. As the night wore on, the
force of the wind gradually increased in intensity, and great gusts
struck the building at all angles wi