The unsettled weather of the last few days burst this night in a storm, which has not been precedented, as regards the height of the tide accompanying it, since September 1856 or 1857; #0 at Toast so nautical gentleman who has deen resident here since that time. On Saturday morning there was what sosfaring men call a hard blue aky, and the stars wore exceptionally bright, indicating that a storm was approaching. And these premonitory symptoms were strengthened Inter in the day by an "extra" issued by our little enterprising contemporary, the Mercury,—the publication of ® telegram received from Amoy on the previous evening, to the effect that at 2.40 p.m. on Friday, a typhoon was blowing in the Formosa Channel, and that its track was unknown. A fresh unsteady south-easterly wind was blowing here during the whole of Saturday, but the barometer on board the P, and O. steamer Brindisi, which was moored at the Hongkew Wharf, only went down yg from 6 a.m, to 7 p.m., when it registered 29.82. About this time a sharp end violent quell, with the wind about by S., was experienced. It was, however, of short duration, and afterwards the wind was comparatively light until about 11 p.in., when it commenced to rain; the barometer was unsettled, and the wind was voaring from the eastward to the north-east. After midnight it increased in violence, and blow for a short time, at long intervals, a hard gale, maintaining thatforcomoro or less from daylight until past mid-day, and throughout the whole of this time rain descended in perfect torrents. The capacity of the street Grains was insnfiiciont to carry off the water as quickly as it came down, and as soon as the flood tide commenced to make, before ten o'clock, the thor throughout the entire Settle: flooded. In the low-ivin was a regular deluge; for instance, at noon it was almost possible to travel in a sampan from the Ming-hong Road jetty to the Hongkew Polioo Station; from a tall building in Hongkew it could be seen that the whole of the country was completely submerged as far as the eye could reach, and the water in some of the at knee-d naiivo residents considerable; in some instances they were washed out of house and home, their frail buildings giving way to the force of the water against them. The tide reached within one foot of the top of the Hongkew wharf staging, and it is feared that the cargo in downs has suffered, in spite of most praiseworthy efforts on the part of the employes to remove it as soon as they saw the danger to which it was subjected. For two or three hours a very large number of coolies was engaged, and the utmost activity in the removal of the goods prevailed. The United States Con. sular flagstaff threatened to fall, one of the stays seominuly having given way, and the staff itself was bending over at an angle of nearly 45°. 'The rice croys in the country surrounding Hongkew, it is also feared, fared badly, if even' they have not been in many places entirely destroyed.
The Soochow Creek overflowed its house-boats were jammed most ously amongst native craft; some small cargo-boats and sampans were ried close to the shops on the northern side; and generally the scone here after the rin was a peculiar admixture of wreckage, in which native small craft largely predominated; but the masts of what were apparently two foreign-owned house-boats could be seen sticking out of the water; and we hear, with regret, but we had not time to substantiate the rumour, that the boats in the Boat-house belonging to the Rowing Club did not escape a share of the mischief that has been wrought. The wind also made havoc with the big wooden verandahs in front of the buildings on the opposite side of the street.
The English and French Bunds presented a most pi lit. The road was everywhere strown with thefoliageof the trees, and. every few yards there was either a broken branch, a recumbent tree, or a sapling or tree uprooted altogether. The same sad spectacle was to be seen in a greater or less degree wherever there were trees to be found, and some of the most beautiful compounds in the Settlement—the Consular compound and the Cathedral compound—suffered in this respect.
Garden, when the tide was at its highest, was, we are informed, nearly covered' with water, the only spot where the green turf could b being just around the Band stand. But when we passed through about three o'clock, the water did not extend across the wide gravel-walk alongside the river; all the other walks, however, were under water but the result of a hasty look round was that we thought the shrabs and plants had d_ better than we thought they would have done. Still, however, the beauty of our pleasurable little resort has again been ruthlessly marred to an appalling extent both by the wind and tide.
The streets of the English Settlement, from eleven o'clock until three, were nearly as bad as some of those in Hongkew. At one time the water approached very near to the Club steps and to Messrs. Russell und Company's new buildin; greater part of the grass plot from the entrance to the Garden to the Yang-king-ug Creek was for a long time submerged.
he Yang-king-pang Crock, like the Soochow Crook, was unable to contain the volume of water forced into it from the river, and overflowed on the northern side, the water standing in some parts of the street there to the depth of twelve inche: Thoro was a similar quantity of water in many of the other streets where foreign houses are situated, though as a rule wore passable, the crown of the road bein; free from water; but in some instances the stroote were quite knee-deep. This was the for instance, in the Kiangse Road at its junction with the Canton Road; the Honan Road from the Hankow Roa to the Kiukiang Road was in a condition, and the water was afoot deep on the Soochow Road—the road on the south bank of the Soochow Creek, from the Honan Road bridge to the Garden bridge. In the back parts of the Settlements, inhabited by Chinese, the stra: hear, wore in a worse pug! damage up to a reported at the Police Stations. The only cases of damage that had come to the knowledge of the police were the destruction of about forty feet of wall in a wall thirty feet high belonging to the Silk Guild, the collapse of the gables of some Chinese houses, and the uprooting of trees in various parts of the Settlements and outlying roads. It would thus appear that the damage sustained by the Settlement has been comparatively small. In addition, however, to what we have mentioned, we hear on all sides of leaks in roofs caused by the removal of tiles by the wind, and of venetians and matting sunshades being carried away.
On the river the damage, so far as we able to learn, was restricted to native craft, and we hear of none of the larger of this class of vessel having come to grief. During the storm the wrecks of several small and medium sized cargo-boats were seen floating up the river, and as we hear of no lives having been saved, it is feared that their crews have perished. In addition to the two house-boats we have mentioned as coming to grief in the Soochow Creek, another one broke from her moorings off Messrs. Boyd and Company's Dock, and was immediately swamped, With' her keel. uppermost she floated round Pootang Point, and was last seen drifting away among the june, The hull of the Intely-burnt-out steamer Bombay broke away from her bow moorings at the place she has been anchored at below the old Ningpo wharf for some months peat, She swung round across the bows of the barque Oceania, carrying away a portion of her head-gear and forcing her against the barque Leeyih, which anchored at her stern, he Leeyih's moorings wore also broken, but little further damage mas done, _It is eaid that steam was got up on board H.M.'s gunboat Fozhound and the MIM. Co.'s steamer Oxus; but we did not notice it ourselves. The C.M.S.N. Oo,'s steamer Pautah, which should have left on Sunday morning for Chefoo and Tien. tain, had not gone at five o'clock in afternoon. We hear that the P. and 0, steamer Ancona, which took the last English mail, passed the Lightship about four o'clock on Saturday afternoon. Mr, Brand, who was returning from the pilotage grounds, signalled her that a hurricane was blowing outside; and if she proceeded it is more than probable that would run into the heart of it, At this time the barque Nouveau Mondalli twas also outside waiting to go to soa, and the steamer Ardantiene, inward bound, was waiting for a pilot.
At four o'clock on Saturday afternoon the barometer at the Lightship registered 29.98, the wind was S.E., the weather threatening, and the atmosphere very close and sultry, At midnight the barometer had fallen to 29.90. The weather was then calla, but overcast, and later on there were occasional squalls, The wind at this time was from the east. From two to three o'clock a.m. the barometer was steady, but at 5 am, it had fallen to 29.65. The wind had veered from E, to N.E, outside the limits of the particularly on the Bubbling Well Road and down the Yangtsze-poo Road, where the trees have suffered considerably and the country is more or less flooded. The most serious case of damage is that to the well-known resort on racing days, Bellevue, the roof of which has been entirely destroyed, One portion of it, about 16 feet square, was carried intact a distance of about 80 yards, falling ona native house, crushing it to the ground, and the occupants narrowly escaped with their lives, The other portion of the roof fell inwards, causing a considerable amount of damage to the furniture in the lower room, and later on a portion of the western wall was also carried away by the wind. Mr, J. P. Dasilva, whois the occupant of the promises, will therefore be a considerable loser by the catastrophe. A strange circumstance in connection with this occurrence is that it took place a few minutes after two o'clock in the morning, when, we believe, it was comparatively calm in the Settlement. About the same time, however, that Mr. Dasilva lost the roof of his residence we hear also that the roof of the stables of Jardine, Matheson & Ca., Mr.
the Grand Stand, and other in the locality sustained damage. Several trees in the Bubbling Well Road were blown down, and in the avenue which is being rapidly formed between the Broadway Hotel and the entrance to the China Merchants' Ex wharf, no fewer than nineteen trees have been blown down or very largely damaged.
We have endeavoured to obtain complete readings of the barometer and the direction and force of the wind at the various stages of the storm, but have been as yot unable to do so. However, the officers of the P. & O. steamer Brindisi have kindly supplied as with the reading of their barometer, which they state fs one of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.