the entrance of the harbour. About six
thousand persons altogether perished at
Barbadoes in this storm.

At Forster's Hall Estate, near Job's
River, the phenomena were, by many,
attributed to an earthquake. Several of the
buildings sank into the earth, and a house
in which a flock of sheep and some cattle
were lodged was swallowed up, and
entirely disappeared. A wood adjoining
moved down to where the house stood, and
a field of young canes took possession of a
spot previously occupied by a field of
potatoes. At St. Thomas, too, the same
convulsions occurred, and the house of a
Dr. Brown was partially buried.

Lieutenant-Colonel Reid, amid all the
roar and desolation, found a few calm
moments to make some scientific observations
on the course of the hurricane. He decided
that the progressive rate of these terrific
storms is not greater than that of the
ordinary atmospheric currents, and that
hurricanes appear to owe their destructive
power chiefly to their rotatory velocity.
The distance between Barbadoes and St.
Vincent is nearly eighty miles. This storm
began at Barbadoes a little before midnight;
but it did not reach St. Vincent until seven
o'clock next morning; its rate of progress,
therefore, was only about ten miles an hour.
A gentleman of the name of Simons, who
had resided for forty years in St. Vincent,
had ridden out at daybreak, and was about a
mile from his house when he observed a
cloud to the north of him, so threatening
in appearance that he had never seen any
so alarming during his long residence in
the tropics; he described it as appearing of
an olive green colour. In expectation of
terrific weather he hastened home to nail
up his doors and windows; and to this
precaution attributed the safety of his
house, which was situated on the Upper
Adelphi Estate.

A very careful observer at Bridgetown
described the hurricane as having been
preceded by a morning of cloudless weather
and a gentle breeze. This in a few hours
gave way to high winds from the east, which
soon subsided. With occasional puffs only
from the east the heat increased about two
P.M. to eighty-eight degrees, and was
unusually oppressive and sultry. At four
the thermometer sank two degrees; at five
dense clouds gathered from the north; then
came a shower of rain followed by an
ominous stillness, with a dismal blackness
gathering all round, a dim circle of
imperfect light appearing towards the
zenith: at six and seven the sky was
cleared, and the air was calm; at seven the
wind again blew from the north; at half-past
nine it freshened, and showers of rain
fell; at half-past ten distant lightning was
seen. Then till midnight came squalls of
wind and rain with intermediate calms, the
thermometer varying with great rapidity.
After midnight the gale increased from the
north-east, and the lightning was more
vivid and frequent. At one A.M. the wind
changed to the south-west, and blew harder
than ever. When the hurricane first began,
so capricious was the storm, that some
houses were levelled to the ground, when
the residents of others not a mile off were
scarcely sensible that the weather was
unusually boisterous. Just before the full
madness of the storm broke forth, the sky
was incessantly in a blaze with quivering
sheets of lightning, but these were
surpassed by the bolts of electric fire that
kept exploding in all directions. The
hurricane was at its height about two,
but at three the occasional outbursts were
tremendous. When the lightning ceased for a
moment the pitchy darkness that wrapped
the town seemed inexpressibly awful
to the frightened watchers. Many meteors,
and one in particular, were noted by our
observer. It was of a cylindrical form,
like a lamp shade, and globular at the
bottom. It was of a deep red hue like
red-hot metal, and fell perpendicularly, as if
by its own gravity, and not as if shot or
propelled from any other aërolite. On
approaching the earth with increased velocity
it assumed a dazzling whiteness and an
elongated form, and on striking the earth
in Beckwith-square splashed to pieces as if
it had been molten metal or boiling quicksilver.
A few minutes after this phenomenon
the wind suddenly lulled to a low distant
roar, and the lightning, which had scarcely
ceased to flash and dart, played fiercely
between the clouds and the earth, casting
down blazes of flame which seemed
answered and returned by gushes of fire from
the earth's surface. The moment after the
hurricane burst forth again from the west
with tenfold violence. No thunder was
distinctly heard; but there was one horrible
roar of wind and waves, mixed with the
ceaseless clattering of tiles, the snapping of
glass, the falling of roofs and walls, the
shouts of men, the groans and screams of
the wounded and dying, and the shrieks of
the women and children.

At dawn, the observer we quote made
his way to the wharf though the rain
was painful to the face, and was so dense
as to veil every object beyond the head