storms of the past, lying prone on their sides, either uprooted or cut through as with a knife:  many in falling had broken through the masonry of the boundary walls of the compounds in which they were growing, greatly intensifying the look of misery and desolation.  There were also to be seen myriads of branches of trees stripped off and flung about in all directions in the wildest confusion, and in some parts the ground was so thickly strewn with fallen leaves as to form a sort of carpet.

Many of the buildings had also suffered very severely.  Some had had their verandahs and sides blown in, and others had had corners literally cut off where the fury of the storm had struck a particular angle.  Amongst some others that had fared so badly was unhappily St. James’s Theatre in Circular Road, the home of the “CATS.”  All the members at once felt that it had become a thing of the past, as the owner, Mr. Jimmy Brown, who had built it at a cost of Rs. 30,000, could never afford the expense of repairing it.  The picture will show the wreck it had become.  But bad and distressing as all this appeared to be, it absolutely paled into insignificance in comparison with what I Was to witness on arrival at the river bank.  The sight that there greeted me was truly appalling and beggared description.  Of the whole of that grand and superb array of vessels which had been seen the day before gracefully riding safely at their moorings, decked out in all their pride and glory and lined up alongside the Strand, three and four abreast from the Pepper Box to the Eden Gardens, one alone was left, all the others having been violently torn adrift and swept clean away to the four winds of heaven.  Besides these were all the country traders moored to the south of the Pepper Box known as Coolie Bazar, extending as far as Tackta Ghat, which shared the same fate.

[Illustration:  Remains of St. James’s Theatre, Circular Road.]

[Illustration:  Remains of Col.  Turner’s House, 2, Wood Street.]

They had all been driven helter-skelter in every direction, some as far north as Cossipore, and one vessel, the Earl of Clare, was landed high and dry on the present site of the assistants’ bungalow of the north mill of the Barnagore Jute Company.  One of the P. & O. boats lying at Garden Reach was deposited for some distance inland on the opposite side of the river close to the Botanical Gardens, and the Govindpur was driven helplessly in a crippled state close to the river bank just opposite to the Port Office on Strand Road, and was lying for hours almost on her beam ends on the port side facing the river.  The crew had in desperation sought refuge in the rigging, from which eventually and with extreme difficulty they were happily and safely rescued.  One of Apcar & Co.’s China steamers, the Thunder, was driven well inside Colvin Ghat and on to the Strand at the bottom of Hastings Street.