Bengal has been struck by one of those calamities which,
if they occurred in Europe, would be remembered for generations, but occurring in Asia, are forgotten within weeks. On the night of October 81, a terrible cyclone in the north-east corner of the Bay of Bengal either drove the storm-wave over the shores of Backergange, Chittagong, and the islands facing them, or, as seems more probable from the accounts, banked up the waters of the Megna, the mouth of the Brahmapootra, and then released them as the water in a reservoir is released, when the dyke breaks. The resulting rush sweptDeccan-Shabazpore, the alluvial district of Backergunge, Hattiah, and the island of Sundeep, under a column of water often 20 feet deep, drowning all who could not escape by climbing trees. It is officially believed that 250,000 persons have perished, and judging from the example of the storm of 1822, at least as many cattle must have been swept away. That is five times the destruction caused by the earthquake of Lisbon. The Government have established relief-centres, but man cannot pre- vent these calamities, though life might be saved by building towers or mounds of hardened clay, to which the people could retreat.
